-  >        \f'i.  -i 


PRINCETON,    N.    J.  '^^ 


A 
BR    45     .B35    1882 

Hampton    lectures 


SAe/f. 


T."'.      ...^  '  * 


>  A 


■pa-;."     j  :  j.r'..Jm^.^--  f  , 


(,ii^:fc/ 


.> 


•sw 


THE    ONE    MEDIATOR 


THE    ONE    MEDIATOR 

THE  OPERATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  GOD 
IN  NATURE  AND  IN  GRACE 


EIGHT    LECTURES    DELIVERED    BEFORE   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   OXFORD 
IN    THE    YEAR    1882 

ON   THE  FOUNDATION   OF   THE   LATE   REV.  JOHN   BAMPTON;(^  M.A.^  t-2.C7   M  ''2*- 


CANON    OF   SALISBURY 


PETER   GOLDSMITH   MEDD,   M.A. 

RECTOR   OF    NORTH   CF.RNEY,    GLOUCESTERSHIRE;     HONORARY   CANON    OF    ST.    AI.BAN's 

AND    EXAMINING   CHAPLAIN   TO   THE   BISHOP; 

FORMERLY    FELLOW   AND   TUTOR   OF   UNIVERSITY   COLLEGE  ; 

I.ATE   RECTOR  OF    BARNES 


E.   &   J.   B.  YOUNG    &    COMPANY 

r 00 PER    UNION,    FOURTH  AVENUE 

MDCCCLXXXIV 


NOVUM  TESTAMENTUM  IN  VETERE  LATET, 
VETUS  TESTAMENTUM  IN  NOVO  PATET. 

St.  Aiif^nslinc. 


©iforlj 

PRINTED  BY  E.  PICKARD  HALL,  M.A.,  AND   HORACE  HART 
PRINTERS  TO  THE  UNIVEESITT 


EXTRACT 

FROM   THE   LAST  WILL   AND   TESTAMENT 

OF   THE    LATE 

EEV.   JOHN   BAMPTON, 

CANON   OF    SALISBURY. 

— —  "  I  GIVE  and  bequeath  my  Lands  and  Estates  to  the 
"  Chancellor,  Masters,  and  Scholars  of  the  University  of 
"  Oxford  for  ever,  to  have  and  to  hold  all  and  sinjrular  the 
"  said  Lands  or  Estates  upon  trust,  and  to  the  intents  and 
"  purposes  hereinafter  mentioned ;  that  is  to  say,  I  will  and 
"  appoint  that  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Ox- 
"  ford  for  the  time  being  shall  take  and  receive  all  the  rents, 
"  issues,  and  profits  thereof,  and  (after  all  taxes,  reparations, 
"  and  necessary  deductions  made)  that  he  pay  all  the  re- 
"  mainder  to  the  endowment  of  eight  Divinity  Lecture  Ser- 
"  mons,  to  be  established  for  ever  in  the  said  University,  and 
"  to  be  performed  in  the  manner  following : 

"  I  direct  and  appoint,  that,  upon  the  first  Tuesday  in 
"  Easter  Term,  a  Lecturer  be  yearly  chosen  by  the  Heads 
"  of  Colleges  only,  and  by  no  others,  in  the  room  adjoining 
"  to  the  Printing-House,  between  the  hours  of  ten  in  the 
"  morning  and  two  in  the  afternoon,  to  preach  eight  Divinity 
"  Lecture  Sermons,  the  year  following,  at  St.  Mary's  in  Ox- 
"■  ford,  between  the  commencement  of  the  last  month  in  Lent 
•'  Term,  and  the  end  of  the  third  week  in  Act  Term. 


vi         Extract  from  Canon  Baviptons   Will. 

"  Also  I  direct  and  appoint,  that  the  eight  Divinit}^  Lecture 
Sermons  shall  be  preached  on  either  of  the  following  Sub- 
jects— to  confirm  and  establish  the  Christian  Faith^  and  to 
confute  all  heretics  and  schismatics — upon  the  divine  au- 
thority of  the  holy  Scriptures — upon  the  authority  of  the 
writings  of  the  primitive  Fathers,  as  to  the  faith  and  prac- 
tice of  the  primitive  Church — upon  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ — upon  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy 
Ghost — upon  the  Articles  of  the  Christian  Faith,  as  compre- 
hended in  the  Apostles'  and  Nicene  Creeds. 

"  Also  I  direct,  that  thirty  copies  of  the  eight  Divinity  Lec- 
ture Sermons  shall  be  always  printed,  within  two  months 
after  they  are  preached  ;  and  one  copy  shall  be  given  to  the 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  and  one  copy  to  the  Head  of 
every  College,  and  one  copy  to  the  Mayor  of  the  city  of 
Oxford,  and  one  copy  to  be  put  into  the  Bodleian  Library ; 
and  the  expense  of  printing  them  shall  be  paid  out  of  the 
revenue  of  the  Land  or  Estates  given  for  establishing  the 
Divinity  Lecture  Sermons ;  and  the  Preacher  shall  not  be 
paid,  nor  be  entitled  to  the  revenue,  before  they  are 
printed. 

"Also  I  direct  and  appoint,  that  no  person  shall  be  quali- 
fied to  preach  the  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons,  unless  he  hath 
taken  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  at  least,  in  one  of  the 
two  Universities  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge ;  and  that  the 
same  person  shall  never  preach  the  Divinity  Lecture  Ser- 
mons twice." 


Hfx 


PREFACE. 

The  object  of  the  following  Lectures  is  to  exhibit,  in  out- 
line, the  twofold  Mediatorial  Character  which  belongs  to  the 
Eternal  Son  of  God,  as  the  sole  Means  wherethrough  the  ad 
extra  action  of  the  Godhead  has  ever  proceeded. 

Assigning  to  Him  alone,  as  Holy  Scripture  does,  the  great 
function  of  Mediation  between  the  Infinite  Godhead  and  the 
Universe ;  regarding  Him,  the  Personal  Wisdom  and  Word  of 
the  Father,  as  the  one  channel  thi'ough  which  the  Holy  Spirit, 
Who  is  revealed  as  the  Life  and  Power  and  Energy  of  the 
Godhead,  has  ever  flowed  forth,  both  in  the  act  of  Creation 
and  upon  things  created,  for  their  continual  maintenance  in 
being  and  for  their  development,  we  distinguish  between 
(a)  His  Creative  and  (/>)  His  Redemptive,  or  New-Creative 
Mediation.  Roughly  speaking,  this  division  corresponds  to 
the  customary  distinction  between  Nature  and  Grace ;  and 
were  we  limiting  our  view  of  the  august  Work  of  the  Son  of 
God  to  His  relations  with  fallen  man  it  might  suffice  to  adopt 
that  customary  distinction,  and  to  confine  ourselves  to  His 
redemptive  action  only.  Looking,  however,  at  His  Work  and 
Function  in  a  wider  view,  and  at  an  earlier  stage,  as  the 
Auyos  aa-apKos,  i.  e.  as  He  has  operated  in  the  invisible  angelic 
world  as  well  as  upon  Mankind,  and  upon  Mankind  before  the 
Fall  as  well  as  since,  we  perceive  that  that  distinction  did  not 
at  first  exist.  The  first  Creation  was  a  Creation  in  grace,  both 
of  angels  and  men.  The  distinction  between  Nature  and 
Grace,  between  the  Natural  and  the  Supernatural,  did  not  exist. 
The  Natural  was  supernatural,  the  Supernatural  was  natural. 
At  least  they  co-existed,  if  they  were  not  indeed  identical ; 
the  Supernatural  enveloping  and  interpenetrating  the  Natural. 


viii  Preface. 

Such  would  seem  to  be  the  true,  the  ideal,  the  normal  con- 
dition of  created  life,  to  be  one  day  realized  in  the  Consum- 
mated State.  The  entrance  of  sin  it  was  that  created  for 
Man,  and  in  man's  thought,  the  sharp  division  between  the 
Natural  and  the  Supernatural,  between  Nature  and  Grace.  The 
higher  endowments  of  creaturely  life  in  close  conscious  com- 
munion with  God  were  cut  off  by  the  alienation  induced  by 
sin.  The  lower  elements  remained,  constituting  Man's  natural 
life  and  powers  ;  so-called  because  they  are  those  which  belong 
to  him  by  birth,  and  put  him  in  relation  with  that  visible 
world  around  him  which  we  call  Nature. 

Hence  arose  the  necessity  for  the  One  Mediator  to  undertake, 
beyond  His  original  creative  function,  a  Redemptive  function 
also.  This  involved  in  fact  a  New  Creation,  a  Regeneration  ; 
and  necessitated,  for  its  ultimate  efFectuation,'that  Incarnation 
of  the  Eternal  Son,  which  had  been  conceivable,  possible,  even 
probable,  as  the  predestined  means  of  the  Consummation  of 
Creation,  in  its  union  with  the  Creator,  even  apart  from  sin. 
But  it  will  be  my  endeavour  to  show,  that,  in  an  inferior  and 
preparatory  way,  the  One  Mediator,  in  His  love  and  pity  for 
our  fallen  race,  as  the  One  Being  to  Whom  of  natural  right 
the  function  of  Redemptive  Mediation  necessarily  belonged, 
was  continuously  exercising  that  redemptive  function,  though 
after  a  veiled  manner,  from  the  very  first  beginnings  of  human 
history  until  the  fulness  of  the  times  was  come.  We  are  not 
to  wonder  at  the,  to  us,  seemingly  slow  movement  of  Him  to 
Whom  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day.  Science  requires  us  to 
assume  the  lapse  of  long  ages  of  preparation  before  the  first 
creation  of  Man  upon  the  earth.  This  protracted  evolutionary 
process  may  well  prepare  us,  by  way  of  analogy,  for  the  long 
recorded  preparation  for  the  New  Creation  of  Man  through 
the  Incarnation. 

Viewing  the  work  of  Christ  in  this  way  we  seem  to  gain  a 
grander  idea  of  the  Purpose  of  God  in  His  making  of  Man  in 
His   oivn   Image,    and    a    firmer    grasp   of    the   magnificent 


Preface.  ix 

Personality  of  the  Eternal  Son,  and  of  His  function  as  the 
central  force  in  all  History,  and  the  ultimate  Judge,  as  He  is 
the  present  King,  of  men.  We  rise  also  to  worthier  thoughts 
of  the  glories  of  that  New  Creation  for  the  realization  of 
which  so  stupendous  means  have  been  employed ;  to  worthier 
conceptions  of  the  destiny  of  Man  as  united  to  God  through 
the  One  Mediator,  and  so  filled  with  the  Life  and  Power  and 
Energy  of  God. 

So  regarded,  the  Christian  Theology  stands  forth  as  indeed 
a  worthy  Revelation  of  God,  full  of  deep  inner  hopefulness  and 
joy.  Its  cardinal  truths  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation 
find  their  due  and  necessary  and  satisfying  place  in  our 
thoughts  about  God  and  His  relation  to  us.  It  is  seen,  further, 
to  include  a  true  and  most  cheering  Anthropology,  which 
adopts  all  the  certainties  of  Science,  and  co-ordinates  them  in 
their  duo  place  and  proportion.  It  helps  in  this  way  not 
a  little  to  the  removal,  or  relief,  of  many  difficulties  which 
oppress  the  modern  mind  from  the  darker  side  of  life  as 
naturally  viewed,  its  sadness,  its  apparent  disappointing 
waste. 

The  days  of  Unitarianism,  Deism,  or  Theism,  as  possible 
forms  of  final  and  permanent  thought  and  belief  for  thoughtful 
religious  men,  are  past.  It  will  more  and  more  be  seen  that 
there  is  no  standin(r-o:round  between  the  Catholic,  i.e.  the 
Nicene,  Faith,  and  blank  Agnosticism  for  the  polished  and 
refined,  or  a  coarse  Materialist  Communistic  Secularism — 
socially  and  politically  dangerous — for  the  rest ;  however 
at  once  intellectually  unsatisfying  and  untenable  (in  the  last 
resort  and  when  fully  thought  out),  and  also  morally  hopeless 
and  degrading,  both  forms  of  the  latter  alternative  must  be. 

Unitarian  thought  and  the  more  relij^ious  forms  of  Deism 
have  laid  usually  much  stress  on  the  '  Fatherly  '  character  and 
loving  goodness  of  God.  Rightly  enough  ;  but  they  have 
seemed  to  suppose  that  an  earnest  faith  in  these  Divine 
Attributes  removed   the  moral  and  intellectual  ground  and 


X  Preface. 

necessity  for  a  strictly  Atoning  and  Redemptive  Work,  or, 
indeed,  for  any  idea  of  Mediation  at  all  as  exercised  by  Christ. 
They  have  argued  back  from  the  parental  relation  and  feeling 
among  human  beings  to  its  existence  in  the  Divine  Being,  as 
the  reflex  of  what  we  ourselves  are  conscious  of  in  our  own 
best  and  deepest  selves.  The  argument  is,  to  a  certain  extent, 
true  and  sound  ;  for  it  is  of  the  nature  of  analogical  reasoning 
that  it  may  be  applied  in  illustration  either  way.  That  God 
is  like  Man  is  true,  as  well  as  that  Man  is  like  God.  But  it  is 
far  more  deeply  and  cogently  true  that  it  is  the  human 
Fatherhood  that  is  the  reflex  of  the  Divine,  not  vice  versa.  It 
was  the  mistake  of  Arius  to  argue  as  if  the  human  Fatherhood 
were  the  original,  and  must  rule  and  limit  our  conception  of 
the  Divine.  On  the  contrary,  quite  apart  from  and  antecedent 
to  any  such  faint  finite  imperfect  reflection,  God  is,  in  Himself 
and  by  His  very  essential  Nature,  and  prior  to  Creation,  a 
Father ;  and  that,  not  in  any  merely  analogous  sense,  but  in 
the  strictest  and  most  perfect,  the  only  perfect  and  absolutely 
true  sense.  This  thought  the  Catholic  Faith,  adequately  in- 
terpreting the  Bible  Revelation  of  God,  gives  to  us  who  sorely 
need  it,  in  the  stress  of  life,  and  in  view  of  the  anguish  around 
us  from  the  sight  and  sympathy  of  which  we  cannot  quite 
escape,  though  we  should  harden  our  hearts  against  it  with  an 
armour  of  threefold  brass.  The  thoughtless  or  the  prosperous, 
the  indifferent  or  the  protected  classes — the  men  and  women 
who,  from  will  or  from  circumstance,  are  cut  off  from  whole- 
some contact  with  their  fellows,  and  know  not,  or  only  by 
hearsay,  what  human  life  can  sink  to  among  the  unhappy 
multitudes  of  our  great  modern  cities — these  may  escape  the 
felt  necessity  of  having  a  faith,  intellectual  or  moral,  one  way 
or  the  other,  positive  or  negative,  as  to  God  and  His  relation 
to  Man.  But  others  there  are  whom  sympathy,  or  duty,  or 
circumstance  has  compelled  to  look  beneath  the  surface  of  our 
hollow  civilization,  and  to  gaze  into  that  deepening  abyss  of 
misery-producing  sin  and  sin-producing  misery  with  which, 


Preface.  xi 

especially  in  these  daj-s  of  selfish  and  narrow  party-govern- 
ment, all  merely  secular  methods  are  so  ludicrously  powerless 
to  deal.  These  know  full  well  that,  as  truly  as  nothing  but 
the  supernatural  forces  of  real  and  full,  that  is,  of  Catholic 
Christianity  can  supply  any  sufficient  remedies  for  these 
evils,  so,  equally  truly,  the  mere  intellectual  and  moral  con- 
templation of  the  problem  they  present  must,  when  pursued 
to  the  end,  lead  to  either  the  acceptance  of  the  Faith  and 
hopes  of  Catholic  Christianity,  as  the  only  tolerable  intellectual 
solution,  the  only  possible  moral  stay,  or  else  to  a  condition 
both  of  heart  and  mind  which  is  something  other  than  human  ; 
to  a  life  of  the  sheerest  selfish  worldliness,  or  worse ;  to  a  life 
whose  sole  principle  is,  practically,  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morroiu  ive  die,  and  from  which,  in  the  end,  intellect  as  well 
as  heart  is  stamped  out. 

A  persuasion  that  even  among  those  who  are  Catholic 
Christians,  and  who  heartily  embrace  and  hold  fast  the 
Nicene  Faith,  there  are  many  who  have  not  fully  entered 
into  the  height  and  depth  of  their  glorious  inheritance,  nor 
really  proved  its  applicability  in  face  of  the  difficulties, 
speculative  and  practical,  which  meet  us  in  modern  life, 
has  led  to  this  present  work.  The  larger  view  of  Christ's 
operation  in  the  field  of  history,  and  in  the  world  of  man 
from  the  beginning,  which,  within  such  limits  as  were  al- 
lowed, I  have,  however  humbly  and  insufficiently,  endea- 
voured to  present,  does  seem  to  me  a  real  stay  of  faith,  a 
contribution,  such  as  is  quite  congenial  to  the.  purpose  of 
Canon  Bampton's  foundation,  to  the  Evidences  of  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  Religion. 

Among  genuine  and  candid  seekers  after  truth,  the  Chris- 
tian faith  needs  only  (I  am  persuaded)  to  be  seen  and  kno\vn 
to  be  accepted.  But,  for  it  to  be  thus  seen  and  known, 
partial  presentations  of  it  will  not  suffice.  It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  among  the  many  deteriorating  effects  of  '  our 
unhappy  divisions'  a  weakened  and  inadequate  presentation 


xii  Preface. 

of  Christianity  (even  intellectually  regarded)  must  be  in- 
cluded. Men  have  pulled  the  Faith  in  pieces ;  parties  have 
appropriated  this  or  that  portion  which  was  to  them  more 
congenial  or  attractive,  and  have  become  by  their  mere  par- 
tisanship prejudiced  against  other  portions  of  the  common 
Truth  which  were  more  specially  upheld  and  asserted  by 
others :  while  the  partisan  maintenance  of  even  important 
and  necessary  truths  (whether  it  were  Justification  by  faith 
or  the  need  of  Sanctification,  or  the  efficacy  of  Sacraments, 
or  the  primitive  truth  about  the  state  of  the  departed,  or 
the  constitution  of  the  Church  as  the  Kingdom  of  God)  has 
tended  to  their  exaggeration,  distortion,  or  even  caricature. 
The  Catholic  Church  herself,  in  all  her  branches,  has  suffered 
from  these  causes.  The  total  effect  on  the  maintenance  of 
the  Christian  Faith  in  the  world  has  been  disastrous. 

Hardly  less  to  be  lamented,  as  a  further  result  of  division 
and  controversy  among  Christians,  is  the  diversion  and 
waste  of  power,  of  time  and  interest,  which  might  otherwise 
have  been  profitably  spent  in,  what  is  so  greatly  needed, 
that  deeper,  closer,  calmer,  and  more  philosophic  study  of  the 
Christian  Faith  as  a  whole,  and  of  the  inspired  Scriptures, 
whereby  the  great  Christian  Society  should  bring  out  of  her 
treasure  things  neiu  as  well  as  old;  should  set,  if  need  be, 
old  truths  in  a  new  light,  show  their  applicability  to  the 
more  trying  conditions  of  our  complex  modern  life,  and 
bring  forward  into  their  due  prominence,  whether  in  her 
own  consciousness  or  in  that  of  the  world  in  which  and 
for  which  she  exists,  those  truths  (and  such  we  are  persuaded 
there  are)  which  belong  indeed  to  the  original  deposit,  but 
are  yet  latent  in  the  pages  of  the  Bible,  unrealised,  or  at 
least,  so  far,  not  applied.  In  the  department  of  Eschatology, 
for  example,  there  is  much,  very  much,  yet  to  be  done  in 
this  direction.  Here,  as  in  other  subjects,  it  is  the  candid 
patient  labour  of  many  thoughtful  and  believing  minds,  and 
their  calm  and  forbearing  comparison  and  correction  of  re- 


Preface.  xiii 

suits,  that  are  required,  to  arrive,  in  the  end,  under  the 
good  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  at  precious  and 
practically  profitable  and  influential  truth. 

What  is,  perhaps,  more  needed  than  anything  else  at  the 
present  time,  to  deepen,  to  give  breadth  and  continuity  to, 
theological  thought  amongst  us,  is  a  deeper,  closer,  and  com- 
pleter, study  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  Some  have 
almost  seemed  to  think  that  the  gift  of  the  New  Testament 
had  rendered  the  Old  superfluous ;  that  since  the  fuller  revela- 
tion of  God  in  Christ  all  was  useless  and  antiquated  that  had 
gone  before.  No  greater  mistake  could  be  made  in  Theology ; 
not  only  because  we  cannot  dispense  with  the  Old  Testament 
in  the  general  argument  for  Christianity,  but  also  because  the 
revelation  contained  in  it — which  is  also,  in  a  very  true  sense, 
a  revelation  of  God  in  Christ — is  not  itself  exhausted  in  lead- 
ing up  to  and  preparing  for  the  New  Testament.  The  present 
generation,  in  this  country  as  elsewhere,  has  seen  much  done 
alike  for  the  criticism  and  for  the  exegesis  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  and  there  are  indications  that  the  study  of  the  Greek 
Language  has  advanced  as  far  as  it  ever  will.  There  are  now 
but  few  passages  in  the  New  Testament  of  which  the  render- 
ing, given  the  Greek  Text,  is  doubtful  or  obscure.  But  the 
recent  Westminster  Revision,  with  its  many  unwarrantable — 
it  may,  in  some  cases,  almost  be  said,  its  demonstrably  un- 
tenable— alterations,  from  an  insufficiently  balanced  view  of 
authorities,  and  from  the  unwholesome  method  of  settling 
such  questions  by  majorities  in  too  large  a  body,  has  shown 
that  there  is  much  still  to  be  done  for  the  permanent  settle- 
ment of  the  Text. 

With  the  Old  Testament  the  case  is  different.  Of  the  Text, 
it  may  be,  perhaps,  true  to  say,  there  is  at  once  far  less 
material  and  far  less  occasion  for  any  reconsideration ;  though 
there  is  yet  a  large  field  open  in  the  determination  of  the 
relation  of  the  Septuagint  Version  to  the  Hebrew  Original. 
But  as  regards  the  Translation,  and  the  clearing  up  of  pass- 


xiv  Preface. 

ages  and  phrases  at  present  wrongly  rendered  or  obscure,  or 
even  wholly  unintelligible,  there  is  much  yet  to  be  done.  A 
correct  and  adequate  exegesis  must,  of  course,  wait  for  this, 
and  for  a  fuller  and  more  generally  diffused  knowledge  of 
the  original  languages  and  their  cognates  than  exists  at 
present.  Let  us  hope  that  we  are  on  the  way  to  this.  Let 
us  hope  that  the  Revised  Version  of  the  Old  Testament  may 
mark  a  great  step  onward ;  and  that,  with  other  benefits,  this 
generation  may  be  delivered  from  the  mostly  misleading 
arbitrariness  of  chapters  and  verses  in  either  Volume,  and 
may  have  seen  the  last  of  the  enormity  of  presenting  Isaiah 
in  such  an  outward  form  as  that  in  which  most  of  us  had  to 
make  our  first  acquaintance  with  him^.  Let  us  hope  also  that 
the  students  of  the  future  will  begin  with  a  stimulating,  if  a 
humbling,  sense  of  how  much  yet  remains  to  be  done,  in  the 
way  of  close  and  fruitful  study  of  the  Old  Testament  as  a 
whole,  and  of  the  Psalms  and  the  Prophetic  portions  in  par- 
ticular :  how  much  towards  the  settlement  of  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  interpretation,  especially,  for  example,  of  the  symbolic 
and  hyperbolic  language  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  towards  the 
making  such  principles  generally  known  and  understood, 
when  settled,  and  towards  the  clearing  of  the  true  view  of 
Prophecy,  Messianic  or  otherwise,  if  indeed  there  be  any 
Prophecy  which  is  not  Messianic. 

Further,  let  us  hope  that  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament 
will  be  earnestly  taken  up  by  those  who  know  and  feel  that, 
except  to  Christian  faith,  it  is  and  must  remain  a  sealed  book ; 
a  book  in  the  reading  of  which  there  is,  and  must  ever  remain, 
a  veil  on  the  faces  of  those  who,  from  whatever  cause,  reject 
the  historic  Christ  in  Whom  it  is  at  once  fulfilled  and— not 
done  away,  but  lifted  to  the  full  height  of  its  glorious  signifi- 

'  In  the  meantime  I  would  earnestly  commend  to  the  attention  of  students  and 
intelligent  readers  the  beautifully  printed  Revised  English  Bible,  edited  by  the 
Kev.  Drs.  Gotch  and  Davies,  Jacob  and  Green.  Eyre  &  Spottiswoode,  London, 
1877. 


Preface.  xv 

cance,  and  invested  for  ever  with  an  inexhaustible  interest. 
May  they  remember  that  it  was  in  the  lifelong  knowledge  of 
these  Scriptures  that  they  had  lived  whom  yet  the  merciful 
Lord  upbraided  as  foolislt,  and  sloiv  of  heart  to  believe,  whose 
understandings  He  had  to  open,  that  they  might  understand 
the  Scriptures,  heginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  Prophets,  and 
expounding  unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning 
Himself.  May  they  remember  that,  now  as  then,  it  is  only 
the  Divine  Eternal  Word  Who,  through  His  in-breathed  Holy 
Spirit,  can  enable  men  to  see  clearly  throughout  the  Bible  its 
one  great  Subject,  which  is  Himself,  in  Whose  Light  alone 
can  we  see  light. 

The  believing  Christian,  however,  in  the  outset,  his  faith  may 
have  been  helped  by  the  converging  force  of  very  various 
considerations,  has,  of  course,  the  ivitness  in  himself,  in  his 
certain  inward  experience  of  the  reality  of  contact  with  God 
and  of  supernatural  grace,  i.  e.  of  the  operation  upon  him  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  mind  and  heart,  in  answer  to  prayer. 
To  honest  enquirers  Christianity  may  be  defended  on  both 
historic  and  philosophic  grounds.  Our  age  needs  both  lines 
of  defence.  Perhaps  the  general  English  mind  is  more  open 
to  the  historic  argument ;  for  it  generally  finds  the  concrete 
more  congenial  to  it  than  the  abstract.  But  of  real  thought 
on  any  subject  there  is  little  enough  in  the  absurd  hurry  of 
modern  life.  And  in  the  way  of  the  effect  of  even  the 
historic  defence  of  Christianity  there  is  the  obstacle  of  the 
scanty  knowledge  possessed  by  most  of  the  history  of  our 
Race,  even  so  far  as  it  is  contained  in  the  Bible,  and  their 
consequent  disadvantage  in  estimating  the  force  of  the  his- 
toric argument.  It  may,  however,  help  some  if  they  are  led 
to  regard  the  Bible  in  its  true  light,  namely.  As  the  History 
of  the  Work  of  the  One  Mediator  as  the  'Educator'  of  Man- 
kind, the  Record  of  the  gradual  progressive  development 
of  that  Work,  from  Paradise  to  Pentecost.  Throughout  that 
long  and  chequered  history,  the  Christ,  the  Eternal  Word, 


xvi  Preface. 

Whose  Incarnation  was  foreshadowed  as  well  as  predicted 
from  the  first,  is  at  once  the  Author  and  the  Subject  of  the 
Revelation;  throughout  it,  and  beyond  it,  for  the  Olivet 
Discourse  [St.  Matt.  xxiv.  and  xxv.)  and  the  Apocalypse  carry 
us  on  to  the  predicted  Consummation  of  the  pre-Christian 
Ao-e  in  the  Judgment  of  Jerusalem,  while  the  latter  chapters 
of  the  last  Book  of  the  Bible,  compared  with  the  parallel 
earlier  utterances  of  Christ  Himself — the  real  author  of  the 
Apocalypse  also — place  us  at  the  right  view-point  for  our 
present  Dispensation — the  Millennial  Times  of  the  Gentiles — 
and  disclose  sufficiently,  though  in  general  outline,  its  career, 
the  main  features  of  its  close,  and  its  glorious  results  in  the 
new  Heaven  and  Earth.  Such  a  view  gives  the  necessary 
unity  to  Revelation  and  to  the  Bible  as  its  Record ;  and,  by 
bringing  out  distinctly  its  progressive  character,  meets  at 
once  many  difficulties,  or  rather  anticipates  and  forestalls 
them. 

In  the  face  of  unbelief,  amid  whatever  drawbacks  from 
the  weakness  of  faith  or  the  imperfection  of  life  among 
Christians,  or  from  their  grievous  dissensions,  the  Religion 
and  the  Society  of  Christ  stand  out  through  nearl}^  nineteen 
centuries  as  tremendous  facts ;  facts  lodged  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  active  moving  world,  and  of  its  activities ;  facts 
that  cannot  be  denied  or  ignored,  facts  that  must  be  ac- 
counted for  in  the  past,  that  must  be  reckoned  with  in  the 
present ;  facts  which  enshrine  a  spirit  and  a  force  which  are 
found,  and  ever  will  be  found — else  must  the  lover  of  man- 
kind despair  indeed — to  be,  in  the  face  of  whatever  oppo- 
sition, incompressible,  indestructible,  Divine. 

P.  G.  M. 

NouTH  Cerney  Eectoky,  Cirencester, 
August,  1883. 


x- 


CONTEN^TS. 


LECTURE   I. 

THE   CREATION   OF   ALL   THINGS    THUOUGH    THE    SOX    OF    GOD. 

SECTIONS  PAGE 

1-7.  Intkoductory     1-13 

1.  Peace  with  and  Love  of  God  necessary  for  Knowledge  of  Him     i 

2.  The  Intellect  to  be  used  in  the  study  of  spiritual  Truth       3 

3.  The  Creeds  contain  all  Fundamental  Truth    6 

4.  The  Supernatural  must  be  accepted  or  rejected      7 

5.  Pre-eminent  importance  of  the  Nicene  Creed 8 

6.  Practical  value  of  the  Creeds  in  everyday  life      9 

7.  Spiritual  Truth  is  only  spiritually  discerned 12 

8.  The  first  truth  about  God  is  His  Only-ness     13 

9.  God  is  essentially  a  Father        15 

10.  The  Son  is  The  One  Mediator  of  the  Father's  Action        16 

11.  God,  in  Himself,  and  as  related  to  Creation 17 

12.  13.  In  and  after  the  Act  of  Creation  the  Son  is  the  Mediator      ...       iS,  20 

14.  Holy  Scripture  on  the  Natural  Mediation  of  the  Son    22 

15.  Creation  is  through  the  Eternal  Word, 26 

16.  Whose  Existence  is  its  necessary  antecedent  condition 26 

17.  The  Godhead  is  manifested  in  and  through  the  Eternal  Woun, 28 

18.  as  the  Son,  the  Only-Begotten, 30 

19.  and  as  the  Image  of  God 31 

20.  The  Father  is  the  Fountain,  the  Son  the  Well,  of  Life 32 

21.  Old  Testament  intimations  of  the  Trinity        32 

22.  The  Universe  is  upheld  by  the  Son  of  God     36 

23.  Loss  involved  in  partial  views  of  His  Mediation    37 

24.  The  Incarnation  is  the  full  development  of  Mediation,      3S 

25.  but  the  Son,  even  before  that,  was  the  One  Mediator 40 

26.  The  Old  Testament  insufficiently  studied 41 

27.  Christ  the  Supreme  Personage  in  History       43 

b 


XVIU 


Co7itents. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE    SON    OF    GOD    THE    LIFE   AND    LIGHT    OF    ALL    CKEATION. 


SECTIONS 

28.  Life  is  given  to  all  through  the  Son  of  God,    

29.  Who  is  the  Sovereign  Lord  over  all  that  lives 

30.  and  the  Heir  of  all  things 

31.  The  Consummated  Universe  to  be  His  Heritage  ... 

32.  Grandeur  of  the  Created  Universe ;  No  antagonism  between  Science 

and  Theology     

33.  Much  of  the  Bible  still  imperfectly  understood     

34.  Judaism  looked  forward  to  the  future; 

35.  So  also  does  Christianity 

36.  The  Son  of  God  is  the  Light  of  the  World     

Vf  37.  Spiritual  Illumination  is  only  through  Him 

38.  Distinction  between  '  soul '  and  '  spirit '  in  Man 

39.  Effects  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  Man 

40.  The  Priesthood  of  the  Only-Begotten  Son     

41.  The  essence  of  Worship  is  Self-Sacrifice 

42.  Connection  of  Priesthood  with  Primogeniture        

43.  Priestly  relation  of  the  Son  to  all  Creation 

44.  The  unseen  Angelic  world        

45.  The  Angels'  worship  of  God  presupposes  a  Revelation 

46.  Angels  employed  in  the  administration  of  the  Universe 

47.  Interest  of  the  angels  in  the  glories  of  Creation  ... 

48.  Moral  life,  and  Probation,  of  the  angels :  Origin  of  Evil 

49.  Self-assertion  against  God  the  inner  essence  of  Sin 

50.  The  outward  form  of  the  first  act  of  sin 

51.  Effects  of  sin  on  angelic  natures      

52.  Foreseen  loss  through  sin  of  some  angels  and  men 


LECTURE  IIL 


THE   CREATION   OF   MAN  ;     ITS    RELATION    TO    THE    INCARNATION. 


53.  The  gradations  of  Organized  Life    

54.  The  processes  of  Nature  the  object  of  Science 

55.  Man  is  the  Head  of  the  visible  world,    

56.  and  the  most  representative  of  all  creatures 

57.  'Traducianism'  and  '  Creationism '  both  true 

58.  The  Incarnation,  probably,  not  contingent    .. 

59.  Its  effects  reach  beyond  Mankind 


Contents.  xix 

SECTIONS  PACE 

60.  It  alone  links  Creation  to  God,       113 

61.  and  secures  its  permanence  and  continual  development      114 

62.  Scripture  intimations  of  its  wider  Purpose    117 

63.  God's  ultimate  and  all-inclusive  Purpose       118 

64.  The  Incarnation  meets  any  true  elements  in  Pantheism     122 

65.  Pantheism  congenial  to  fallen  man's  thought  of  God 125 

66.  Only  in  Christ  can  Man  bear  the  nearness  of  God       127 

67.  Unsatisfying  hopelessness  of  Pantheism         128 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE   PREPARATION    FOR   THE    INCARNATION  :     THE    THEOPHANIES. 

68.  The  long  Preparation  for  the  Incarnation     132 

69.  Patience  needed  under  difficulties  as  to  Faith       134 

70.  The  Son  of  God  the  '  Life  '  and  the  '  Truth  '  to  all,      137 

71.  and  the  '  Educator  '  of  Man  from  the  first    13S 

72.  Primeval  Worship     140 

73.  Entrance  of  Sin  into  Man's  world 142 

74.  Adoration  of  God  for  His  mercy     144 

75.  The  '  Protevangelium  '     145 

76.  The  primitive  usage  of  Animal  Sacrifice         145 

77.  Mediatorial  relation  of  the  Son  to  fallen  Man      148 

78.  The  Christian  Faith  the  Key  of  Man's  past  History 150 

79.  The  Ante-diluvian  Dispensation      153 

80.  Its  close  was  an  '  End  of  the  world '      154 

81.  Period  from  Noah  to  Abraham :  Sodom  and  Gomorrah       156 

82.  The  Mediator  is  also  the  Judge      157 

83.  The  '  Theophanies '  in  the  Old  Testament     160 

84.  Primitive  Christian  belief  that  all  Di\-ine  Dispensations, 162 

85.  and  communications  to  Man,  were  through  the  Son  of  God,       164 

86.  Who  is  the  '  Angel  OF  THE  Lord  '        166 

87.  Tlie  Incarnation  no  isolated  fact     170 

88.  Illustrative  passages  from  the  New  Testament 173 

89.  Unity  of  Operation  of  the  Three  Divine  Persons 177 

90.  Saint  Augustine's  divergence  from  the  primitive  view        181 

91.  Hypothesis  that  the 'Angel  of  the  Lord'  was  a  erp.ibiire 183 

92.  Cessation  of  the  '  Theophanies '  accounted  for      187 

93-111.  Detailed  Examination  of  the  '  Theophanies  ' 189 

93.  Divine  Appearances  to  Abram        189 

94.  Appearances  of  the  '  Angel  of  the  Lord  '  to  Hagar      191 

b  2 


XX  Contents. 

SECTIONS  PACE 

95.  To  Abraham  on  Moriah ;  to  Jacob  at  Luz,  in  Haran,  at  Mahanaim, 

at  Bethel 192 

96.  Visit  of  the  three  Angels  to  Abraham 195 

97.  The  Appearance  to  Moses  in  the  Burning  Bush 197 

98.  The  Pillar  of  Cloud  and  of  Fire       199 

99.  The  Divine  Guardian  of  Israel        200 

100.  The  Appearance  to  Balaam 203 

101.  To  Joshua  before  Jericho         205 

102.  To  the  People  at  Bochim  :  to  Gideon     209 

103.  To  the  parents  of  Samson         210 

104.  The  Angel  of  the  Pestilence    212 

105.  Tlie  Vision  of  Ezekiel 214 

106.  Appearances  in  the  Book  of  Daniel        216 

107.  The  Vision  of 'The  Ancient  of  Days'    217 

108.  The  '  Great  Vision  '  of  Daniel         220 

109.  The  Visions  of  Zechariah         224 

110.  The  '  Angel  of  the  Covenant '  in  Malachi      230 

111.  These  Appearances  a  bond  between  the  Old  Covenant  and  the  New  231 


LECTURE  V. 

THE  MEDIATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  GOD  UNDER  THE  LAW. 

112.  The  Christian  Faith  the  only  Key  to  past  Revelation       233 

113.  The  earlier  Mediation  of  the  Son  of  God  was  veiled 236 

114.  Old  Testament  hints  explained  by  the  Risen  Christ    237 

115.  The  Son  operated  behind  and  within  the  Legal  System  ;  His  Spirit 

was  in  the  Prophets 238 

116.  His  Priestly  Function  under  the  Law 24I 

117.  Development  of  Sacrifice  in  the  Mosaic  System 242 

1/ 118.  Underneath  the  Law  lay  the  earlier  Gospel  of  Faith         244 

119.  Grace  was  vouchsafed  through  the  Unseen  Mediator        246 

120.  Levitical  Worship  a  shadow  of  the  Heavenly     246 

121.  Christ  sacrificed  is  the  Sustenance  of  Man's  Life       248 

122.  Significance  of  the  '  Perpetual  Passover '    250 

123.  The  Unseen  Christ  fed  His  ancient  People         251 

124.  The  Kingly  Sovereignty  of  Christ 253 

125.  The  strife  of  good  and  evil  in  human  History     255 

126.  The  Theocratic  constitution  of  Israel:  the  Judgment  of  Egypt       ...  259 

127.  The  Judgment  of  Amalek      262 

128.  The  Judgment  of  the  Canaanites 262 


Contents. 


XXI 


129.  God  the  Son  especially  '  the  God  of  Israel ; '  and  their  King 

130.  Judgments  inflicted  on  them  by  their  Unseen  King  ... 

131.  The  first  downfall  of  Jerusalem    

132.  Grandeur  of  the  Calling  of  Israel 

133.  Modern  critical  study  of  the  Bible        

134.  The  study  of  God's  Purpose  is  permitted     

135.  Need  of  realizing  the  Eoyalty  of  Christ       


PACE 

Ig  ...    . 

.    263 

.    266 

.    267 

.    26S 

■    273 

.    275 

.    276 

LECTURE   VI . 


THE  INCARNATION  ;  THE  WOEK  OF  THE  INCARNATE  MEDIATOR,  ON 
EARTH,  AND  IN  THE  UNSEEN. 


136.  The  '  fulness  of  the  time '       

137.  demanded  some  striking  change    

138.  The  Incarnation  fully  constituted  the  Son  The  One  Mediator 

139.  The  Incarnation  is  especially  a  message  of  Peace       

140.  The  special  work  of  Christ  began  with  His  Baptism        

141.  His  Fasting  and  Temptation 

142.  His  Work  as  Prophet     

143.  His  Work  as  Priest,  First,  In  the  Upper  Chamber 

144.  The  three  stages  of  the  One  Sacrifice 

145.  Gethsemane      

146.  His  Passion      

147.  His  Death        

148.  The  Unseen  State 

149.  No  further  probation  after  death  ;        

150.  but  development  and  progress       

151.  The  Work  of  the  Mediator  in  the  Unseen 

152.  The  '  spirits  in  prison  ' 

153.  Increase  of  joy  to  the  departed  from  Christ's  Work 


280 
282 
288 
290 
292 

293 
296 
299 
303 
309 
3io 
312 
313 
314 
316 

318 
3'9 
321 


LECTURE   VIL 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  MEDIATOR  DURING  THE  GREAT  FORTY  DAYS. 


154.  Importance  of  the  great  Forty  Days    ...     . 

155.  Christ,  as  King,  organizing  His  Kingdom  , 
V  156.  The  Seven  Great  Sayings  ;  First,  Peace 

157.  The  Second  Saying,  Commission 

158.  The  Third  Saying,  Power      


3-!4 
326 
328 
329 
329 


xxu 


Contents. 


159.  The  remaining  Four  Sayings  :  The  'Power  of  the  Keys' 

160.  Tlie  Pastoral  Charge,  by  the  Lake        

161.  The  Baptismal  Commission,  on  the  Mountain    

162.  The  Final  Charge,  at  Bethany      

163.  The  Ascension 

164.  Distinction  between  '  natural '  and  '  spiritual '  Mediation 

165.  The  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost     

166.  The  Action  of  the  Apostolic  Ministry 

167.  Ideal  life  of  the  first  Christian  Church 

168.  The  forty  years'  Respite  of  grace  to  Jerusalem 

169.  The  three  visible  Appearances  of  the  Ascended  Christ 

170.  The  date  and  purpose  of  the  Apocalypse,    

171.  which  is  an  enlarged  form  of  Christ's  Prophecy  on  Olivet 

172.  Secondary  'applications  '  of  Inspired  Prophecy 

173.  Later  examples  of  Christ's  Judicial  action 


PAGE 

330 
332 

333 
335 
335 
337 
338 
340 
342 
343 
344 
345 
349 
355 
357 


LECTURE   VIII. 


THE    WORK    OF    THE    MEDIATOR    AFTER    THE    ASCENSION. 


174.  The  temporary  rejection  of  the  natural  Israel     

175.  The  Binding  of  Satan  :  The  Reign  of  Christ,      

176.  and  of  the  Saints  with  Him 

177.  The  Ideal  of  Salvation  in  Christ 

178.  The  Millennial  Reign  '  within  the  veil '       

179.  In  Church  Worship  Heaven  and  Earth  are  one, 

180.  especially  in  the  Holy  Communion       

181.  The  royalty  of  the  Christian  calling,    

182.  secured  and  perfected  in  the  Unseen  State 

183.  Christ's  Work  continually  applied  in  the  Church, 

184.  by  the  Power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  through  a  ministrative 

185.  The  One  Mediator  ever  acts  invisibly ; 

186.  as  Prophet;     

187.  as  Priest;         

188.  as  King, 

189.  claiming  the  allegiance  of  all 

190.  He  is  also  the  Judge       

191.  Evils  resulting  from  the  unfaithfulness  of  Christians 

192.  The  predicted  '  Apostasy  ; '  Anti-Christ      

193.  The  order  and  sequence  of  the  '  Last  Things'     ... 


priesthood 


359 
360 

363 
364 
368 

369 
370 
371 
372 
372 
373 
375 
376 
377 
379 
380 
382 
382 
385 
389 


Co7itents.  xxiii 

SECTIONS  PAGE 

194.  The 'Passing-away' of  this  earth  and  heaven     391 

195.  The  descent  of  the  '  New  Jerusalem  ' 394 

196.  Tlie  consummated  union  of  Christ  with  His  Church 396 

197.  The  uncovenanted  saved         401 

198.  Various  degrees  of  blessedness      402 

199.  The  Consummated  State  a  complex  Society,        404 

200.  with  an  ordered  govermnent,  under  Christ  the  Head  of  Humanity  406 


APPENDIX   I. 


I.  The  Angels  illuminated  by  the  Son  of  God         411 

II.  The  Angels  are  not  merely  spirits        41 1 

III.  The  Universe  administered  by  agency  of  angels         414 

IV.  The  essence  of  the  first  sin  was  Pride 416 

V,  The  fall  of  the  Angels  irremediable      419 

VI.  Appearance  of  the  Son  of  God  in  Paradise 423 

VII.  The  Tlieophanies     426 

VIII.  The  Co-inherence  of  the  Three  Divine  Persons 502 

IX.  The  Title  vlrfoHa*  belongs  especially  to  the  Son         503 

X.  Christ's  Commission  was  given  to  the  Church  as  a  whole         505 

XI.  The  Apocalyptic  Babylon  is  Jerusalem       509 

XII.  The  Millennial  '  Binding  of  Satan '       524 

XIII.  Bible  Ideals    531 

XIV.  Christ  the  Minister  of  the  New  Covenant 540 

XV.  Antichrist       545 

XVI.  The  Restoration  of  the  Jews        1^53 

XVII.  The  Surrender  of  the  Kingdom 563 


APPENDIX   11. 

Additional  Notes  and  References      571 

Index    578 


LECTURE  I. 


THE  CREATION   OF  ALL  THINGS   THROUGH 
THE   SON   OF   GOD. 

St.  John  i.  3.  ndvTa  8t'  avrov  (yiv^ro,  koX  \0ip\9  avrov  €yev€TO 
ovbe  €v  o  ykyoviv.  (All  things  came  into  being-  through 
Him,  and  apart  from  Him  came  not  into  being  even  any 
one  thing  that  has  come  into  being.) 

I.  It  is  a  deep  truth  that  Pectus  est  quod  facif 
tJieologum  (It  is  the  heart  that  makes  the  theologian). 
It  is  '  the  Peace  of  God  which  passeth  aU  imderstand- 
ing '  that  keeps  us  in  the  knowledge  and  in  the  love  of 
God ;  in  both,  if  in  either.  And  the  peace  of  God  is 
that  inward  condition  in  which  the  soul,  embracing 
heartily  the  essentials  of  Christian  Faith,  rests  with 
entire  confidence  on  the  revealed  love  of  God  in  Christ, 
and,  yielding  itself  back  to  God  with  answering  love, 
desires  before  aU  things  that  His  Will  may  be  done 
*  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.'  This  is  the  condition  of 
the  children  of  God,  wrought  in  them  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Comforter,  the  Sanctifier,  the  Enhghtener, 
without  Whose  help  there  can  be  no  true  knowledge 
of  the  things  of  God.  His  Presence  in  the  Soul,  the 
accompaniment  of  the  indwelling  therein  of  Him  Who 
is  '  our  Peace,'  keeps  both  heart  and  mind  *  in  the  know- 

B 


2        The  Peace  of  God  and  the  Love  of  God    [lect. 

ledge  and  love  of  God  and  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.'  But,  in  the  growth  of  the  Christian  Infe 
within  us,  each  helps  on  the  other,  and  tends  to 
increase  it  in  mutual  reaction.  The  love  of  God,  the 
will  to  do  His  Will,  the  accompaniment  of  each  ap- 
proach towards  even  the  barest  thought  of  Him  by  a 
reverent  longing,  by  the  impulse  of  adoration,  these 
are  the  first  elementary  conditions  of  any  real  know- 
ledge of  God.  Where  these  are  absent,  there,  although 
the  very  highest  themes  that  can  engage  the  human 
intellect  may  be  treated  of,  and  ^vith  the  highest  reach 
of  power  whereof  that  intellect,  learned,  thoughtful, 
and  informed,  is  capable,  the  discussion  yet  becomes 
but  one  of  mere  empty  names,  representing  different 
ideas  to  different  thinkers,  and  wholly  barren  of  results 
of  any  value  either  intellectual  or  moral.  Where  they 
are  present  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  vision  of 
Truth,  though  necessarily  imperfect  as  to  both  exten- 
sion and  intension,  is  clear  in  itself  so  far  as  it  reaches, 
and  in  its  gathering  strength  furnishes  ever  fresh 
motive  and  material  for  adoring  love. 

o 

It  is  by  this  reaction  of  heart  and  mind  on  each 
other  that  a  faith,  warm  to  the  height  of  an  absorbing 
passion,  and  rational  and  intelligent  to  the  utmost 
reach  of  those  faculties  which  *  the  Father  of  Lights,' 
our  Creator,  has  given  us,  is  nourished  and  sus- 
tained. 

For  '  in  order  to  the  searching  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  drawing  therefrom  of  true  Knowledge,  there  is 
need  of  a  good  life  and  a  pure  soul  and  the  virtue  that 
is  according  to  Christ,  in  order  that  the  mind,  making 


I.]  necessary  for  the  Knowledge  of  God.  3 

its  way  thereby,  may  be  enabled  to  attain  and  to  ap- 
prehend the  things  after  which  it  reaches  forth,  so  far 
as  it  is  possible  for  the  nature  of  man  to  learn  about 
God  the  Word.  For  without  a  pure  mind  and  the 
imitation  of  the  life  of  the  Saints  would  not  any  one 
be  able  to  comprehend  the  writings  of  the  Saints ' 
{St,  Athanasius  on  the  Incarnation,  chaj?.  57). 

Therefore,  at  the  outset,  I  would  pray  in  the  words 
of  the  illustrious  Bishop  Bull  at  the  opening  of  his 
great  work  in  defence  of  the  Nicene  Faith : — 

Te  vero  Sanctissime  Jesu,  aeterni  Patris  co-aeternum 
Verbum,  ego  peccatorum  maximus,  servorum  Tuorum 
minimus,  supplex  veneror,  ut  huic  labori  meo,  in  hono- 
rem  Tuum  sanctaeque  Ecclesiae  Tuae  utilitatem  (Te 
KapSioyvdoa-rrjv  testor)  suscepto,  benedicere,  meaeque  im- 
becillitati  in  hoc  gravissimo  negotio  pro  immensa  Tua 
misericordia,  atque  in  Tui  amatores  propensissima  vo- 
luntate  subvenire  atque  opitulari  digneris.     Amen. 

[0  most  holy  Jesus,  the  Co-eternal  Word  of  the 
Eternal  Father,  I,  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  the  least 
of  Thy  servants,  do  humbly  beseech  Thee  that  Thou 
wouldest  vouch^fe  to  bless  this  labour  of  mine, 
undertaken  (as  Thou,  0  Searcher  of  hearts,  dost  know) 
for  Thine  honour  and  the  good  of  Thy  holy  Church, 
and  to  succour  and  help  mine  infirmity  in  this  most 
weighty  work ;  for  Thine  infinite  mercy's  sake,  and 
Thy  most  ready  favour  towards  them  that  love  Thee. 
Amen.] 

2.  It  need  hardly  be  said  to  a  Christian  congregation, 
that  our  intellectual  powers,  finite  as  they  are  in 
their  scale,  and  hindered  as  they  now  are  in  their  action, 

B  2 


4  The  Intellect  to  be  used  [lect. 

especially  on  moral  and  religious  subjects,  by  their 
association  with  a  nature  morally  corrupt  and  de- 
generate, are  yet  God's  own  precious  gift  to  us,  part 
of  our  likeness  to  Himself,  and  so  are  to  be  used,  and 
not  cowardly  and  faithlessly  suppressed,  in  our  ap- 
proaches to  Him  'in  knowledge  of  Whom  standeth 
our  eternal  life.'  The  Christian  believer  need  not  think 
it  a  worthy  sacrifice  to  God  to  withdraw  the  reverent 
action  of  his  mind  from  any  subject-matter  of  thought, 
even  the  very  highest.  On  the  contrary,  he  thinks  it 
his  religious  duty  to  press  it.  He  does  not  fear  that 
the  action  of  Eeason  must  of  itself  be  hurtful  to  faith. 
Such  fear,  from  his  stand-point,  seems  really  as  irre- 
verent and  profane  as  it  is  groundless.  He  accepts  cer- 
tain data,  the  fundamental  cardinal  Truths  of  Natural 
and  Eevealed  Pteligion,  as  he  feels  himself,  even  intel- 
lectually, constrained  to  do  by  the  cumulative  converging 
force  of  a  vast  mass  of  considerations  of  very  varied 
sorts,  rational,  moral,  or  mixed,  a  priori  or  inductive, 
historic,  or  growing  out  of  his  study  of  himself,  his 
own  subjective  constitution,  his  moral  and  spiritual 
necessities  and  aspirations.  But  in  these  data  he  finds 
an  inexhaustible  field  for  the  exercise  of  the  very 
highest  and  most  delightful  thought ;  while,  in  the 
standing  results  of  such  thought,  in  the  sublimely 
coherent  and  satisfying  view  of  God,  of  Nature,  of 
History,  and  of  Man,  so  opened  up,  he  finds  further 
strong  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  those  data  them- 
selves. 

Compare  Dorner,  Person  of  Christ,  Vol.  I,  Preface,  p.  viii. 
'Whoever    reveres   Christianity  as    accordant   with   the 


I.]  ill  the  study  of  spiritual  TrtUh.  5 

highest  reason,  must  also  presume  a  proo-ressive  unfold- 
ing and  strengthening-  of  Reason  through  the  power  of 
Christianity,  and  that  no  term  can  be  fixed  for  Reason 
in  this  advance.  If  in  Christ  be  found,  as  Theology 
must  hold  to  be  the  case,  the  key  to  the  world's  History, 
and  the  solution  of  all  enigmas,  it  is  not  humility,  but  a 
self-willed  inactivity,  to  refuse  to  seek  how  we  may  ever 
better  and  better  apply  this  key  for  the  resolution  of  all 
mysteries.'  And  Ibid.,  Inirod.  p.  73.  '  It  is  the  tendency 
of  the  Christianity,  which  has  through  the  Holy  Ghost 
become  subjective,  to  penetrate  the  whole  sphere  of  the 
soul;  and  the  man  who  should  attempt  to  except  the 
knowledge  department  from  that,  and  to  abide  in  simple 
immediate  belief,  would  subject  belief  itself,  which  has 
already  knowledge  as  an  element  in  it,  and  thereby  con- 
secrates the  knowledge  faculty  itself,  to  similar  infirmities 
with  those  which  we  see  arise  where  faith  does  not  pass 
over  into  practice,  but  seeks  to  hold  this  sunk  in  itself. 
.  .  .  .  The  historical  vocation  of  Christianity  will  not  be 
satisfactorily  fulfilled  where  men  rest  contented  with 
being  firm  in  the  faith,  with  the  deliverance  of  souls 
from  the  world,  but  only  there  where  Christian  know- 
ledge, or  science,  is  also  held  to  be  the  work  and  vocation 
of  the  Church  along  with  that.' 

Also  SJiedd's  History  of  Christian  Doctrine,  Preface,];),  v. 
'It  is  a  common  remark  that  a  powerful  statement  is 
a  powerful  argument.  This  is  true  of  the  dogmas  of 
Christianity.  But  there  is  no  statement  of  revealed 
truth  more  clear,  connected,  and  convincing,  than  that 
which  it  obtains  in  the  gradual  and  sequacious  construc- 
tions of  the  Church,  from  century  to  century.  Let  any 
one  trace  the  course  of  thinking  by  the  theological  mind, 
upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  e.  g.,  and  perceive  how 
link  follows  link  by  necessary  consequence;  how  the 
objections  of  the  heretic  or  the  latitudinarian  only  elicit 
a  more  exhaustive,  and  at  the  same  time  more  guarded, 
statement,  which  carries  the  Church  still  nearer  to  the 


6     The  Creeds  contain  all  Fundamental  Truth,     [lect, 

substance  of  revelation,  and  the  heart  of  the  mystery ; 
how,  in  short,  the  trinitarian  dogma,  like  Christian  life 
itself  as  described  by  the  apostle,  "  being  fitly  joined 
together,  and  compacted  by  that  which  every  joint  sup- 
plieth,  maketh  increase  unto  the  edifying  of  itself"  into  a 
grand  architectural  structure, — let  this  process  from  be- 
ginning to  end  pass  before  a  thinking  and  logical  mind, 
and  it  will  be  difficult  for  it  to  resist  the  conviction  that 
here  is  science,  here  is  self-consistent  and  absolute  truth. 
It  cannot  be  that  the  earnest  reflection  of  all  the  Christian 
centuries  should  thus  have  spent  itself  upon  a  fiction  and 
figment.  The  symbol  in  which  this  thinking  embodied 
itself  must  be  the  exponent  of  a  reality.  Such  is  the 
impression  made,  and  such  is  the  unavoidable  inference.' 

3.  For  us  those  data  are  tlie  great  primary  truths 
about  God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  which  are 
embodied  in  the  Catholic  Creeds.  The  fact  that  these 
truths,  reverently  pondered,  are  seen  to  be  in  them- 
selves so  luminous  and  coherent,  and,  further,  to  go 
an  appreciable  way  towards  explaining  the  phenomena 
of  Nature,  of  Man,  and  of  historic  Kevelation,  shews 
(it  would  seem)  very  forcibly  their  own  impregnable 
truth.  To  the  Christian  they  furnish  a  clue  and  a  key 
to  much  that  without  them  is,  and  must  remain,  a 
confused  and  inextricable,  and,  in  its  bearing  on  our- 
selves, our  toilsome  and  suffering,  our  at  best  imperfect 
and  unsatisfying  lives,  a  truly  painful  riddle. 

In  any  system  which  is  short  of  the  full  Catholic 
Nicene  Christianity  many  precious  shreds  and  frag- 
ments of  truth  may  indeed  be  attained  to  which  may, 
and  do,  nourish  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  in  such 
souls  as  heartily  embrace  them  with  a  faith  that  keeps 


I.]    The  Supernatural  must  be  accepted  or  rejected.     7 

itself  open  to  fuller  convictions  as  they  may  be  offered. 
But  that  full  rounded  satisfyingness,  moral  and  intel- 
lectual, which  is  felt  by  the  thoughtful  Catholic  be- 
liever to  be  so  great  a  stay  of  faith,  so  great  an 
assurance  of  truth,  can  belong  only  to  the  complete 
system  of  Kevealed  Truth.  Towards  this  full  conviction 
tends  all  hearty  acceptance  even  of  fragments  of  super- 
natural truth  ;  for  it  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
coherency  of  a  true  system  that  the  clear  apprehension 
of  even  portions  of  it  has  a  tendency  to  lead  on  the 
mind,  which  candidly  pursues  the  trains  of  thought 
thus  opened  up,  to  the  apprehension  of  further  truths, 
and,  ultimately,  of  the  whole. 

4.  The  true  dividing  line  in  thought  as  to  this  class 
of  subjects  is  that  between  the  acceptance  of  the 
Supernatural  and  its  rejection.  Given  the  Supernatural, 
the  Catholic  Scheme  is  possible.  All  will  admit  this. 
And  the  Catholic  maintains  that,  rightly  understood  and 
fully  apprehended,  it  is  as  certain  as  it,  and  it  alone, 
is  fully  and  intellectually  satisfying.  Objections  and 
hesitations  as  to  any  parts  of  the  Catholic  Faith  by 
those  who  are  Christian  believers  are  felt  to  arise, 
either  from  misapprehension  as  to  what  the  Truth  really 
is,  i.  e.  from  objection  to  something  which  is  supposed 
to  be  intended  but  is  not ;  or  else  from  the  presence, 
it  may  be  quite  unconsciously,  of  a  way  of  looking 
at  unfamiliar  truths,  against  which  '  our  unhappy 
divisions'  may  have  prejudiced  their  minds,  that  is 
rationalistic  (so  called),  but  really  unbelieving.  In  the 
sectarian,  and  puritanical,  and  grievously  miscalled 
'  evangelical,'  rejection  of  certain  Catholic  Verities  there 


8  Pre-einine7it  importance  [lect, 

is  much  tKat  is  really  due  to  this  cause.  And  where 
it  exists  outside,  and  in  antagonism  to,  the  organization 
of  the  Church,  it  has  shewn  historically  an  unmis- 
takable tendency  to  work  gradually  downwards  to- 
wards the  ultimate  rejection  of  the  Supernatural,  first 
by  individual  teachers  and  thinkers,  and  then  by  con- 
gregations and  communities. 

From  whatever  causes  (and  they  are  manifold)  the 
rejection,  or,  if  such  an  attitude  of  mind  be  really 
tenable,  the  neutral  non-acceptance  of  the  Supernatural 
is  not  uncommon  in  the  present  day.  The  tendency 
is  more  and  more  for  the  world  to  be  divided  between 
those  who  thus  reject  or  ignore  the  Supernatural,  and 
those  who  accept  the  Catholic  Scheme  of  Eevealed 
Truth  as  held  by  the  Undivided  Church,  and  stated 
in  the  Nicene  Creed  as  completed  at  the  Council  of 
Constantinople. 

5.  In  that  document  is  enshrined  all  necessary  funda- 
mental religious  truth.  In  their  hold  of  that  the  three 
great  branches  of  the  Catholic  Church  are  one.  The 
baptized  man  who  holds  that  is  a  Catholic  Christian 
so  far  as  his  individual  faith  is  concerned.  Such  an 
one  should  find  his  natural  home,  and  the  warm 
welcome  of  Christian  brotherhood,  in  any  portion  of  the 
three  great  Catholic  Communions  with  which  he  may 
be,  for  the  time  being,  in  local  contact.  The  ordained 
man  must  of  course  accept,  in  addition,  the  existing  con- 
stitutional system,  and  the  current  practical  teaching, 
of  the  communion  in  whose  executive  he  seeks. to  work. 
But  the  first  necessary  steps  towards  the  He-union  of 
Catholic  Christendom,  which,  if  Christianity  is  to  hold 


I.]  of  the  Nicene  Creed.  9 

its  own,  is  obviously  the  great  need  of  the  immediate 
future,  will  be  the  abandonment,  at  least  to  the  extent 
of  ceasing  to  insist  upon  them  as  necessaries,  of  all  con- 
stitutional features  which  are  not  common  alike  to  all 
three  Communions,  and  the  abolition  of  all  express 
adhesion,  subscriptionary  or  otherwise,  except  only  to 
the  Nicene  Creed. 

Let  not  this  view  be  misunderstood,  as  if  it  were 
meant  that  the  area  of  certain  and  precious  truth  is 
limited  to  the  actual  statements  of  this  Creed.  One 
purpose  of  these  Lectures  is  to  shew  that,  taking  the 
foundation  truths  of  this  Creed  as  a  key  to  unlock  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  there  may  be  shewn  to  be,  beyond 
them,  a  large  body  of  further  truth,  deeply  interesting 
and  deeply  important ;  of  truth  which  by  its  own 
beauty  and  consistency  and  by  the  way  in  which,  to  the 
eye  of  thoughtful  faith,  it  lights  up  the  whole  field  of 
History  and  of  Prophecy,  furnishes  a  strong  a  'posteriori 
confirmation  of  the  truth  and  strength  of  the  founda- 
tion on  which  it  is  built,  of  the  germ-truths  from  which 
it  is  developed.  But  these  further  truths,  beyond 
those  clearly  expressed  in  the  Creed,  are  not  in  them- 
selves vital.  They  are  not  necessary  to  the  personal 
spiritual  life,  or  the  union  of  the  soul  with  Christ  in 
and  through  His  Church.  They  are  not  fundamental. 
They  need  not,  and,  if  they  need  not  they  ought  not, 
to  be  required  of  any  as  a  condition  either  of  member- 
ship or  of  office  in  the  Church  of  Christ. 

6.  AJl  vital  and  practical  Religion  grows  out  of  a 
true  conception  of  God,  of  His  Nature,  Being,  Cha- 
racter,   and    Purpose ;    for   on    that  depends  our  con- 


lo  Practical  value  of  the  Creeds  [lect. 

ception  of  His  relation  to  Creation,  to  Man,  and  to 
ourselves,  and  of  our  consequent  relation  and  duty  to 
Him. 

It  is  from  her  strong  instinctive  over-ruling  sense  of 
this,  as  well  as  of  what  is  due  to  God  and  abstractedly 
true  in  itself  as  a  matter  of  Revelation,  that  the  Chris- 
tian Church  has  always  so  strenuously  insisted  on  the 
necessity  and  importance  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity 
and  the  Incarnation.  These  truths,  which  are  in 
perfect  harmony  with  Eeason,  though  transcending 
reason,  and  undiscoverable  without  Revelation,  she  has 
ever  felt  to  be  no  mere  curious  speculation,  no  cold 
abstract  and  unpractical  refinements  of  a  remote  and 
over-subtle  philosophizing,  without  bearing  on  cha- 
racter and  life,  and  so  admitting  of  being  variously 
viewed  by  the  subjective  intellect  this  way  or  that, 
without  danger  or  loss  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
nature.  Far  on  the  contrary,  the  great  champions  of 
the  Catholic  Faith,  men  like  Athanasius,  ever  deeply 
felt  that  they  were  not  contending  for  barren  in- 
tellectual victories  or  even  for  Truth  in  the  abstract 
(though  that  is  precious),  but  were  fighting  really  (not 
to  mention  the  honour  of  God)  for  the  moral  and 
spiritual  welfare,  for  the  joy  and  comfort,  ay,  for  the 
possibility  of  the  patient  endurance  without  apathy 
and  despair  in  their  e very-day  life,  as  well  as  for  their 
hopes  of  an  eternal  hereafter,  of  the  poor  and  the  un- 
instructed,  the  toiler  and  the  serf,  the  woman  and  the 
child.  It  was  the  late  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  who 
said  that  St.  Athanasius  'asserted  the  eternal  genera- 
tion of  the  Son  not  as  a  dry  dogma,  but  as  a  living 


I.]  i7i  every-day  life.  1 1 

principle   in  which  every  child  and   peasant  was   in- 
terested '  {Letttr  to  Dr.  Jelf). 

I  adopt  with  gratitude  the  following'  passage  from  the 
Bampton  Lectures  of  1879  (by  the  Kev.  Henry  Wace) : — 
'  It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  Creeds  of  the  Churcli 
are  to  be  approached,  and  when  they  are  placed  in  this 
light,  all  the  appearance  of  mere  speculative  dogmatism, 
which  is  attributed  to  them  by  scepticism,  at  once  melts 
away,  and  seems  scarcely  to  need  refutation.  They  are  not 
mere  abstract  statements  respecting  the  nature  of  God. 
They  embody  the  most  moral,  the  most  human,  the  most 
touching  and  affecting  conceptions  which  can  stir  the 
depths  of  the  heart.  If  the  Creeds  are  the  distinctive 
characteristic  of  the  Christian  Church,  it  is  not  because 
Alexandrian  metaphysics,  or  any  mere  theological  specu- 
lations, had  elaborated  theories  about  the  Divine  nature. 
That  was  the  work  of  the  Gnostics,  of  the  Arians,  and 
of  similar  heretics.  It  was  because,  as  a  matter  of 
certain  apprehension  and  most  blessed  fact,  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  fulfilling  in  His  life  and  death  and  resur- 
rection the  promises  of  the  Old  Testament,  had  revealed 
to  men  the  image  of  a  God  of  infinite  love  and  light, 
had  brought  that  God  home  to  them  in  their  very  llesh 
and  blood,  had  assured  them  of  reconciliation  and  union 
with  Him,  had  offered  Himself  as  a  propitiation  for  their 
sins,  and  in  answer  to  their  prayers  had  bestowed  on 
.  them  a  grace  and  power,  which  they  felt  in  daily  expe- 
rience to  be  the  first-fruits  of  redemption.  It  is  the 
whole  of  Christian  life,  the  whole  of  that  intense  moral 
and  spiritual  illumination  we  have  been  contemplating, 
which  constitutes  the  background  of  the  creeds,  and 
bestows  on  them  their  vital  force  and  reality.  The 
revelation  of  God,  as  we  have  seen  in  previous  Lectures, 
was  the  life  of  faith  from  its  earliest  dawn — the  strength 
of  Abraham,  the  hope  of  the  Prophets,  the  sum  and 
substance  of  the  life  of  our  Lord.     In  Him,  His  life.  His 


1 2     Spiritual  Truth  only  spiritually  discerned,     [lect. 

death.  His  resurrection,  Ilis  ascension,  it  had  hecome  the 
daily  food  of  Christian  souls ;  and  when,  in  Arianism,  the 
last  and  most  suhtle  attempt  was  made  to  divide  Him 
from  God,  and  thus  to  prevent  us  from  feeling-  that,  in 
union  with  Him,  w^e  were  in  union  with  God,  it  was  not 
the  Christian  intellect,  so  much  as  the  Christian  heart, 
that  revolted.  It  was  this  impulse  which  animated 
St.  Athanasius.  The  spirit  which  really  moved  him  may 
be  perceived  in  his  treatise  Be  Incarnatione  Verhi,  written 
before  the  controversial  period  of  his  life,  and  of  which 
the  centi'al  idea  is  the  recovery,  through  Jesus  Christ, 
of  the  g-lorious  image  of  God  which  the  human  soul  had 
lost.  It  was  probably  to  the  intense  devotion  of  St. 
Antony  to  God  and  Christ,  as  much  as  to  the  schools 
of  Alexandria,  that  he  owed  his  inspiration.' 

7.  If  to  any,  devoid  of  the  humility  and  of  the 
living  faith  which  are  at  once  the  condition  and  the 
consequence  of  that  mward  illuminating  presence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  without  which  there  can  be 
no  true  grasp  of  theological  truth,  such  doctrines  have 
been,  even  in  their  orthodox  statement,  the  subjects  of 
a  mere  intellectual  exercise,  they  have  ever  been  worse 
than  barren.  They  have  tended,  under  such  absence 
of  real  spiritual  life,  to  become  perverted,  distorted,  and 
depraved,  and  so  untrue  even  in  their  intellectual 
statement.  For  spiritual  and  supernatural  truth,  if  it 
is  to  be  to  any  even  abstractedly  and  inteUectually 
true,  apart  from  its  influence  on  practice,  must  be 
'spiritually  discerned.'  On  such  subjects  only  the 
*  unction  from  the  Holy  One,'  operating  as  well  on  the 
intellectual  as  on  the  moral  elements  in  the  complex 
unity  of  Man's  nature,  can  give  the  true  knowledge 
of  divine  things,  the  living  growing  knowledge  which 


I.]       The  first  truth  about  God  is  His  Only-ness.        1 3 

St.  Paul  calls  eV/yi/wo-/?.  This  kind  of  knowledge  is 
the  result  of  the  gift  of  'the  spirit  of  wisdom  and 
revelation '  by  which  the  eyes  of  our  understanding  are 
enlightened  {TL'^li.  i,).  And  of  this  gift  a  genuine 
moral  sympathy  with  the  Will  of  God  is  the  necessary 
condition  ;  for  only  '  if  any  will  to  do  the  Will  of  God 
shall  he  know  of  the  doctrine/  Only  to  *  the  pure  in 
heart,'  to  those  (that  is)  whose  will  is  in  sincere 
endeavour  attuned  to  God's  Will,  does  the  promise 
belong  that  they  shall  see  God  in  either  the  humble 
partial  knowledge,  '  through  a  glass  darkly,'  which 
belongs  to  this  the  pilgrimage  of  our  exile,  or  in  the 
open  vision  '  face  to  face '  hereafter  in  the  Fatherland, 
in  the  'City  which  hath  foundations.' 


8.  '  There  is  but  one  living  and  true  God.  .  .  .  And 
in  unity  of  this  Godhead  there  be  three  Persons,  of  one 
substance,  power,  and  eternity  :  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost '  {^Article  I). 

Christian  Eeligion  begins  with  an  intense  grasp  of 
the  Unity,  that  is,  the  Only-ness,  of  God.  The  Catholic 
believer  does  not  admit  the  use  of  the  term  'Unitarian' 
as  in  itself  expressive  of  an  idea  of  God  antagonistic 
to  his  own ;  for  his  belief  in  the  Trinity  of  Persons  is 
not  only  consistent  with  but  demands  the  antecedent 
fimdamental  verity  of  the  absolute  and  indivisible 
Unity  of  the  Divine  Essence,  a  verity  which  underlies 
his  whole  conception  of  God  and  of  Keligion.  He  is 
as  essentially  Unitarian  as  he  is  Trinitarian.  But  any 
presentation  of  the  thought  of  God  which  is  negatively 
Unitarian,  (that   is.    Unitarian    without  being   at   the 


14  Only-ncss  in  God  is  not  Loneliness.          [lect. 

same  time  Trinitarian,  as,  for  example,  in  Moham- 
medanism, Socinianism,  Deism,  or  Theism,)  he  rejects  as 
essentially  inadequate,  untrue,  impossible.  The  Jewish 
Old  Testament  belief  was  not  (as  we  shall  see)  Uni- 
tarian in  this  negative  sense.  It  simply  asserted  the 
Only-ness  of  God,  the  Uniqueness,  the  Singularity  of 
God,  regarded  ah  extra,  as  well  as  the  Unity  (though 
this  was  naturally  less  insisted  on)  ah  intra.  But 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is  so  asserted  in  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  as  to  exclude  the 
conception  of  Plural  Personahty  within  the  Godhead. 
On  the  contrary,  they  rather,  when  closely  examined, 
suggest  it.  They  are  not  only  consistent  with,  they 
prepare  the  way  for,  the  Christian  beliefs  of  the  Trinity 
and  the  Incarnation. 

The  Only-ness  of  God  is  one  thing,  and  is  a  neces- 
sary truth  even  of  natural  reason  ;  for  it  flows  neces- 
sarily from  the  primary  conception  of  God  as  the 
Infinite,  the  Absolute,  the  Self-existent  Being,  as  a 
Pure  Spirit  locally  incomprehensible  (immensiis).  The 
Loneliness  of  God  is  altogether  another  thing,  and  to 
deny  the  Plural  Personality,  to  assert  the  personal 
singularity,  of  God  is  to  assert  the  Loneliness  of  God, 
Such  an  assertion  presents  us  with  the  essentially  cold 
and  sterile  conception  of  a  sterile  being,  a  God  from 
whom  the  attribute  of  Fatherliness  is  essentially  and 
eternally  absent ;  who  is,  and  ever  must  be,  set  at  an 
unapproachable  and  unrelated  distance  from  all  other 
being ;  whose  existence  is  indeed  incompatible  with  the 
existence  of  any  other  forms  of  being.  For  such  a  con- 
ception of  God  renders  the  actual  fact  of  the  existence 


I.]         God^  being  Love,  is  essentially  a  Father,         15 

of  other  beings  than  Himself  unintelhgible  and  absurd, 
and  tends  to  resolve  itself  into  the  conception  of  a 
mere  blind  force,  a  Fate  or  Destiny,  or  even  practically, 
for  man,  to  blot  out  the  thought  of  God  altogether, 
and  land  him  in,  at  best,  Agnosticism. 

9.  Glorious  indeed  in  its  contrast  to  a  thought  so 
barren  is  the  faith  of  the  Christian  in  One  Who  is, 
essentially  and  by  His  very  Nature,  a  Father.  We 
worship  One  Who  could  not  be  otherwise,  and  so  was 
always  and  eternally  a  Father,  in  the  strictest,  fullest, 
and  most  perfect  sense  conceivable,  in  such  wise  that 
all  other  Fatherhood  in  created  life  follows  from,  grows 
out  of,  and  is  the  partial  and  imperfect  reflection  of 
His  essential  and  perfect  Fatherhood.  Our  God  is 
Love ;  and  Love  is  a  relative  term,  and  implies  im- 
mediately and  necessarily  an  object  of  love,  and  that 
object  a  Person ;  and  love,  to  be  perfect,  must  be  be- 
tween Persons  perfect  and  equal.  Wherefore,  by  an 
Eternal  Generation  from  the  depths  of  the  Divine 
Fecundity,  Which  is  the  source  of  all  Life,  there  is 
eternally  begotten  an  Only  Son,  Who  is  tlie  forth- 
flashing  Brightness  of  the  Father's  Glory,  the  Very 
Image  or  Impress  of  His  Person,  the  Likeness,  the 
perfect  reproduction,  the  adequate  expression,  of  the 
Invisible  God,  and  so  a  satisfying  object  of  His  Love, 
a  Beloved  Son,  in  Whom  He  is  eternally  well-pleased, 
for  in  Him  He  eternally  contemplates  the  perfect 
reflection  of  His  own  glorious  Nature  and  Attributes. 

So  strict  is  the  Substantial  Oneness  of  the  Son  with 
the  Father  that  the  Son  is  the  Word  of  the  Father, 
the  Logos,  the  Thought,  the  Reason,  the  Wisdom,  of 


1 6  The  So7i  the  One  Mediator  ofthe Father  s  A  ction.  [lect. 

the  Father ;  and  so  the  Means  wherethrough  the  inner 
Will  and  Purpose  of  the  Godhead  has  passed  outwards 
into  realization. 

lo.  The  Father  has  ever  worked  through  the  Person 
of  the  Son.  The  Son  is  THE  ONE  MEDIATOE, 
acting  from  and  for  the  Divine  Nature  towards  all  else 
that  is.  This  Mediatorial  Character  and  relation,  which 
it  is  the  purpose  of  these  Lectures  to  set  in  a  clearer 
light,  belongs  to  Him  as  involved  in  His  Filial  Pela- 
tion ;  that  is  to  say,  it  flows  out  of  that  relation 
naturally  and  necessarily  so  soon  as  the  fact  of  Creation 
is  added  to  the  primary  fact  of  God.  To  use  the 
language  of  scientific  Theology,  it  is  an  'economical' 
function  and  relation  ;  but  it  rests  on  an  anterior  onto- 
logical  and  metaphysical  relation.  It  is  not  a  part  of 
His  Filial  Personality  as  necessary  a  ^priori  to  its  con- 
stitution, but  it  flows  from  it.  The  thought  of  Media- 
tion becomes  necessary  as  soon  as  from  the  absolute 
thought  of  God  we  pass  to  the  related  thought  of 
Creation,  and  the  Bible  Revelation  distinctly  attaches 
that  Mediation  to  the  Person  of  the  Eternal  Son,  in 
resjject  alike  of  the  Works  of  Creation,  of  Administra- 
tion, and  of  Redemj)tion.  This  is  the  truth  which, 
under  the  guidance  of  Holy  Scripture  and  of  Catholic 
Theology,  it  will  be  our  endeavour  to  trace  as  it  is 
exhibited,  at  least  in  its  grand  outlines,  in  Nature  and 
in  Grace.  The  task  has  been  undertaken  in  the  belief 
that  the  full  reach  and  scope,  in  depth  and  height,  of 
the  aggregate  intimations  of  Holy  Scripture  on  the 
subject  have  been  very  generally  only  imperfectly  ap- 
prehended and  insufficiently  taken  account  of;  and  in 


I.]    God  in  Himself,  and  as  related  to  Creation.     1 7 

the  hope  that,  in  the  course  of  our  work,  considerations 
may  be  suggested  which  may  be  helpful  towards  meet- 
ing some  current  difficulties  ;  or,  at  any  rate,  may  open 
up  to  the  thought  of  reasonable  faith,  and  of  faith- 
quickened  reason,  such  a  view  of  the  grandeur  and 
coherence  of  the  Bible  Scheme  of  things  as  may 
at  once  confirm  and  extend,  and  uplift  into  a  more 
glorious  and  confident  hopefidness,  the  faith  of  thought- 
ful believers. 

II.  In  the  first  place,  however,  it  is  necessary  that 
we  should  remind  ourselves  of  the  necessity  of  keeping 
clearly  in  our  thoughts  throughout  the  distinction 
between  the  timeless  and  absolute,  the  properly  eternal, 
the  unconditioned  and  unrelated  Existence  of  God  in 
Himself,  as  He  is  in  His  inner  Divine  and  inscrutable 
Being,  and  His  Existence  and  Operation  in  relation 
to  the  Created  Universe.  So  long  as  we  think  and 
speak  of  the  Divine  Being  only  as  He  is  in  Himself, 
there  is  no  place  for  the  thought  of  Mediation.  And, 
further,  as  we  dwell  on  the  clear  teaching  of  Holy 
Scripture,  that  it  is  ever  through  the  Person  of  the 
Eternal  Son  that  God  is  in  relation  to  Creation,  we 
must  remember  that  the  Mediatorial  Character  whereof 
we  shall  speak  throughout  is  one  whereby  the  Son, 
Con-substantial  and  Co-equal  with  the  Father,  operates, 
not  by  way  of  inferiority,  though  it  be  in  connection 
with  His  FiHal  Subordination,  not  as  a  rpoiro^  inrap^ew^y 
or  a  necessary  mode  of  his  Subsistence,  but  by  way  of 
'condescension'  and  'economy.'  For, conceivably,  it  had 
not  been  so,  had  no  act  of  Creation  ever  taken  place,  had 
there  never  been  anything  but  God.    In  a  past  Eternity, 

c 


1 8  In  and  after  the  Act  of  Creation        [lect. 

before  Time  was,  God,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit 
rested  in  the  Manifestation  of  Himself  to  Himself,  blest 
in  the  overflowing  Love  of  the  Divine  Persons  each  to 
other;  yet  contemplating  all  possible  action,  Creation 
included  (since  Creation  did  take  place)  as  presently 
reahzed  to  Him  in  Whose  Absolute  and  Infinite  and 
purely  Spiritual  Existence  there  is  no  Past,  Present, 
or  Future. 

12.  The  thought  of  Creation,  so  difficult  a  concep- 
tion in  itself,  is  rendered  easier  (so  to  speak)  and  more 
intelhgible  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  revealed 
interna]  relation  of  the  Son  to  the  Father.  That 
relation  seems,  we  cannot  indeed  say  to  necessitate 
Creation,  but  at  least  to  render  it  more  probable  and 
more  explicable. 

There  is  much  that  is  suggestive  and  valuable  on  this 
point  in  Dr.  J.  J.  van  Oosterzee's  Christian  Dogmatics^ 
section  Iv.,  on  '  God's  Plan  of  the  World.'  (Hodder  and 
Stoughton,  1874.) 

Creation,  that  palmary  and  all-inclusive  miracle, 
once  admitted  as  the  act  of  a  Personal  free-willing  God, 
motived  by  supreme  Love  as  well  as  executed  by  su- 
preme Wisdom  and  Power,  then  the  Develation  of  Him- 
self and  of  His  Love  by  the  Almighty  in  the  narrower 
and  more  special  and  intimate  sense  to  and  through 
the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men,  culminating  in  the 
supreme  Kevelation  of  His  Character  in  His  Incarnate 
Son  and  in  the  New  Creation,  of  which,  as  of  the  Old 
Creation,  the  Son  is  the  Head  and  Centre,  becomes 
natural,  consistent,  and  probable.  Certainly,  as  re- 
gards  the  Natural  Creatiou,  as   soon   as  we   think  of 


1.]       the  Son  is  the  One,  the  U?iiversal,  Mediator.       19 

the  Father  as  the  Creator  Whose  inner  Will  has  gone 
forth  in  a  Fiat  which  has  called  into  existence  a  whole 
Universe  out  of  nothing:,  from  that  moment  the  Ian- 
guage  of  Holy  Scripture  compels  us  to  attach  a 
Mediatorial  Character  to  the  Son.     AVe  use  the  term 

*  Mediator,'  as  esteemed  theological  writers  have  done 
before,  in  its  strictly  proper  and  derivative  meaning  of 

*  One  who  is  a  means  of  intercourse  between  two  other 
parties,  and  through  whom  action  passes  from  either 
to  other,'  a  meaning  much  wider  than  its  too  commonly 
restricted  application  to  Christ  as  the  atoning  and  re- 
conciling Mediator  between  Man,  as  fallen  and  sinful, 
and  God  His  Maker.  Mediation  in  this  latter  sense, 
as  exercised  by  the  Eternal  Son,  however  specially 
necessary  and  unspeakably  precious,  is  still  a  part  of  a 
larger  whole.  It  is  a  special  function  of  a  larger  office, 
a  result  of  a  wider  Mediatorial  relation  in  which  He 
stands  to  unfallen  as  well  as  to  fallen  natures,  indeed 
to  all  created  existence.  To  regard  in  this  way  Christ's 
special  atoning  work,  with  its  unspeakably  touching 
circumstances  of  love-compelling  tenderness  exliibited 
in  the  extremest  humiliation  and  suffering,  is  (we  are 
persuaded)  to  take  a  truer  and  more  firmly-grasping 
view,  a  worthier,  because  a  more  comprehensive  view, 
and  at  the  same  time  (if  we  may  use  the  expression) 
a  more  intelligible  view,  of  His  whole  relation  to  us. 
Such  a  view  tends  to  satisfy  more  completely  our  sense 
of  fitness  with  reference  to  His  special  work  of  Man's 
Redemption :  while  at  the  same  time  the  sense  of  the 
inconceivable  grandeur  of  His  relation  to  tlio  whole 
scheme  of  things  cannot  but  overwhelm  us  the  more 

c  a 


20  Theological  writers  on  the  [lect. 

with  wondering  and  adoring  gratitude  at  the  thought 
of  His  suffering  Love  for  us.  Lord,  what  is  man  that 
Thou  visitest  himf  and  the  son  of  man  that  Thou  so 
regardest  him? 

13.  On  this  point  Bishop  Bull  writes  thus,  'We  must 
note,  in  opposition  to  Bellarmine  and  other  papists,  that 
Hilary  expressly  affirms  (as  it  is  clear  that  the  ancients 
taug-ht  in  common)  that  our  Saviour  was  a  Mediator 
even  in  the  giving  of  the  Law,  and  previous  to  the 
Incarnation ;  and,  therefore,  is  not  a  Mediator  merely  in 
respect  to  His  human  Nature,  seeing-  that  He  had  not 
as  yet  assumed  it ;  and  yet  this  is  what  they  have 
earnestly  maintained.'  Defence  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  IV. 
iii.  14. 

Similarly  Cardinal  Newman,  in  his  History  of  the 
Ar/ans,  II.  3.2:'  Our  Lord  is  called  the  Word  or  Wisdom 
of  God  in  two  respects ;  first,  to  denote  His  essential 
presence  in  the  Father,  in  as  full  a  sense  as  the  attribute 
of  wisdom  is  essential  to  Him  ;  secondly.  His  mediator- 
ship,  as  the  Interpreter  or  Word  between  God  and  His 
creatures.'  And  again  (II.  4.  5) :  '  Of  the  two  titles 
ascribed  in  Scripture  to  our  Lord,  that  of  Logos  ex- 
presses with  peculiar  force,  His  co-eternity  in  the  One 
Almighty  Father.  On  the  other  hand,  the  word  Son 
has  more  reference  to  His  derivation  and  ministrative 
office.  A  distinction  resembling  this  had  already  been 
applied  by  the  Stoics  to  the  Platonic  Logos,  which  they 
represented  under  two  aspects,  the  hbidderos,  and  the 
TTpo(f)opLK6s,  i.e.  the  internal  thought  and  purpose  of  God 
and  its  external  manifestation,  as  if  in  words  spoken. 
The  terms  were  received  into  the  Church  ;  the  eySia^eros 
standing  for  the  Word,  as  hid  from  everlasting  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  while  the  irpocpopiKos  was  the  Son 
sent  forth  into  the  world,  in  apparent  separation  from 
God,  with  His  Father's  name  and  attributes  upon  Him, 
and   His   Father's   will   to   perform.      This   contrast   is. 


I.]  Natural  Mediation  of  the  Son.  21 

acknowledged  by  Atbanasius^  Greg-ory  Nyssen,  Cyril,  and 
other  post-Nicene  writers  ;  nor  can  it  be  censured,  being 
scriptural  in  its  doctrine,  and  merely  expressed  in  philo- 
sophical language,  found  ready  for  the  purpose.' 

And  the  same  writer,  in  a  Christmas  Day  Sermon  on 
the  Incarnation :  '  He  is  called  the  Word  of  God  as 
mediating  between  the  Father  and  all  creatures ;  bring- 
ing them  into  being,  fashioning  them,  giving  the  world 
its  laws,  imparting  reason  and  conscience  to  creatures 
of  a  higher  order,  and  revealing  to  them  in  due  season 
the  knowledge  of  God's  Will.'  Newman's  Parochial 
Sermons,  Vol.  II. 

Compare  Bollinger,  First  Age  of  the  Church,  Book  II. 
Chap.  ii.  '  The  Son  as  His  Image  reveals  the  otherwise 
invisible  Father,  as  the  brightness  of  the  sun  is  manifested 
in  its  rays.  By  Him  and  in  Him  (by  a  creative  act  of 
His  Person)  were  all  things  made;  as  the  Mediator  of  the 
Divine  work  He  has  formed  the  whole  universe.'  And 
again,  '  He  is  the  Only-Born  of  the  Father,  for  He  is  the 
Word  the  Father  has  outspoken  into  separate  personal 
existence  out  of  the  fulness  of  His  Being,  and  by  whom 
alone  He  speaks.  This  Logos  was,  and  now  is,  the  organ 
and  medium  of  creation  ;  by  Him  all  was  made,  and  He 
alone  is  life,  and  gives  life,  of  body  or  of  soul ;  for  in 
Him  all  life  is  contained  as  its  Principle  and  Fountain. 
As  the  Light  of  man  He  shone  into  the  darkness  which 
grew  out  of  man's  alienation  from  God,  even  before 
He  was  incarnated ;  but  the  darkness  comprehended 
Him  not,  and  when  He  came  as  Man  to  His  own 
people  the  multitude  of  them  rejected  Him.  The  world, 
as  the  Apostles  teach,  was  created  not  only  by,  but  lor, 
the  Son,  and  for  His  sake  ;  for  He  is  its  immediate  End, 
in  Him  its  every  end  is  realised,  and  therefore  has  God 
given  it  Him  for  an  inheritance,  and  put  all  things 
under  His  feet.' 

And  Martensen,  Christian  Bogmatics,  ^  125.  'As  the 
mediator  between  the  Father  and  the  world,  it  appertains 


22  Holy  Scriptm'c  on  the  Natural,  .       [lect. 

to  the  essence  of  tlie  Son  not  only  to  have  His  life  in  the 
Father,  but  to  live  also  in  the  world.  As  "  the  heart  of 
God  the  Father,"  He  is  at  the  same  time  the  "  eternal 
heart  of  the  world,"  through  which  the  divine  life  streams 
into  creation.  As  the  Logos  of  the  Father,  He  is  at  the 
same  time  the  eternal  Logos  of  the  world,  through  whom 
the  divine  light  shines  into  creation.  He  is  the  ground 
and  source  of  all  reason  in  the  creation,  be  it  in  men  or 
angels,  Greek  or  Jew.  He  is  the  principle  of  the  law 
and  promises  under  the  Old  Testament,  the  eternal  light 
which  shines  in  the  darkness  of  heathenism  ;  and  all  the 
holy  grains  of  truth  which  are  found  in  heathenism  were 
sown  by  the  Son  of  God  in  the  souls  of  men.  During 
His  pre-existence,  however.  He  was  merely  the  essential, 
not  the  actual,  mediator  between  God  and  the  creature  ; 
for  the  antagonism  between  the  created  and  the  un- 
created was  as  yet  done  away  with  merely  as  to  the 
essence,  not  as  to  existence  {essentia^  existent'ui) ;  the 
strife  between  God  and  the  sinful  world  was  healed 
merely  in  idea,  not  in  life  and  reality.  In  His  pre- 
existent  state,  therefore,  the  Son  regards  Himself  as  the 
One  who  is  to  come  in  and  through  history ;  who  pre- 
pares beforehand  the  conditions  under  which  the  reve- 
lation of  His  love  can  take  place,  His  incarnation  in  the 
fulness  of  the  times  can  be  effected,  and  the  manifesta- 
tion be  made  by  which  the  idea  of  Him  as  the  mediating 
God  will  attain  complete  realization.' 

Hengstenberg  also,  Christolog)/,  Vol.  IV.  Appendix  III, 
finds  '  in  the  Old  Testament  the  doctrine  of  a  revealer 
of  God,  who  is  equal  to  God,  and  yet  distinct  from  Him, 
a  mediator  between  God  and  the  world.' 

14,  The  leading  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  on  the 
relation  of  the  Eternal  Son  to  the  work  of  Creation  are 
the  following : — 

T  Oor.  vni.  6.      £49   Geo?   6    XlarVjO,    e^  ou  ra  TravTa,  /cat 


I.]  or  Universal,  Mediation  of  the  Son.  23 

^yuefy  etV  avTov'  Kai  elg  KJjO/09  ^Ir](TOv<!  ^pia-ro?,  Si'  ou  ra 
-rravra  Koi  tjineh  Sc'  avTov.  (There  IS  One  God,  even  the 
Father,  out  of  Whom  are  all  things,  and  we  unto  Him : 
and  One  Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  through  Whom  are  all 
things,  and  we  through  Him.) 

Colossians  i.  1 5-  "O?  ea-nv  eiKOiv  TOO  Oeou  tov  aopdrou, 
TrptnTOTOKO^  Traa-}]?  KTicrecos'  on  ev  uvtm  eKTiaQt]  ra  Travra, 
ra  ev  toi^  ovpavoii  Kai  ra  eiri  t>;9  7^?,  ra  opara  koi  ra 
aopara,  eire  Opovoi,  e'lre  Kvpiortjreg,  eire  ap-)(aiy  e'lre  i^ovalai. 
Ta  iravTa  01  avTOV  Ka\  eU  avrov  eKTKTTai'  Kai  avTO<!  etrnv  irpo 
TravTwv,    Kai    ra    iravra    ev    uvtm   cTvvecrTijKe.      (Who    is    the 

Image  of  the  Invisible  God,  the  Firstborn  of  all  crea- 
tion :  for  in  Him  were  all  things  created,  the  things  in 
the  heavens  and  the  things  on  the  earth,  the  visible 
things  and  the  invisible,  whether  thrones  or  dominions 
or  principalities  or  powers ;  aU  things  (or,  the  whole 
universe)  were  created  through  Him  and  unto  Him  ; 
and  He  is  before  all  things  and  in  Him  all  things 
consist  (or,  hold  together).) 

Hebrews  i.  2.  Ac  oS  Kai  rovg  aiwvag  eiroitjcrev.  (Through 
Whom  also  He  made  the  worlds — or,  ages.) 

St.  John  i.  2.      lldvra  Si'  avTOu  ejevero'   Kai  -^Mpi^  avrov 

eyevero  ovSe  ev  o  yeyovev.  (All  things  came  into  being 
through  Him :  and  apart  from  Him  came  not  into 
being  even  any  one  thing  that  has  come  into  being.) 

On  these  passages  compare  the  following  : — '  The  ab- 
solute universal  mediation  of  the  Son  is  declared  as 
unreservedly  in  this  passage  from  the  First  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians,  as  in  any  later  statement  of  the  Apostle.' 
Bishop  Li<:^htfoot  of  Durham,  Colossians,  Ldrod.  •  ///. 
p.  122.     T/iird  Ed.  1879. 


24  Commentaries  on  these  [lect. 

'  The  heresy  of  the  Colossian  teachers  took  its  rise  in 
their  cosmical  speculations.  It  was  therefore  natural  that 
the  Apostle  in  replying  should  lay  stress  on  the  function 
of  the  Word  in  the  creation  and  government  of  the 
world.  .  .  .  All  things  were  created  through  Him,  are 
sustained  in  Him,  are  tending  towards  Him.  Thus  He 
is  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end  of  creation.  This  He 
is  because  He  is  the  very  image  of  the  Invisible  God, 
because  in  Him  dwells  the  lilenitude  of  Deity.'  Ibid, 
p.  ii6. 

'  Christ's  mediatorial  office  in  the  physical  creation 
was  the  starting-point  of  the  Apostle's  teaching,  His 
mediatorial  office  in  the  spiritual  creation  is  its  principal 
theme.  ...  If  the  function  of  Christ  is  unique  in  the 
Universe,  so  it  is  also  in  the  Church.  He  is  the  sole 
and  absolute  link  between  God  and  humanity.  Nothing 
short  of  His  personality  would  suffice  as  a  medium  of 
reconciliation  between  the  two.  Nothing  short  of  His 
life  and  work  in  the  flesh,  as  consummated  in  His 
passion,  would  serve  as  an  assurance  of  God's  love  and 
pardon.  His  cross  is  the  atonement  of  mankind  with 
God.  He  is  the  Head  with  whom  all  the  living  mem- 
bers of  the  body  are  in  direct  and  immediate  commu- 
nication, who  suggests  their  manifold  activities  to  each, 
who  directs  their  several  functions  in  subordination  to 
the  healthy  working  of  the  whole,  from  whom  they 
individually  receive  their  inspiration  and  their  strength. 
And  being  all  this  He  cannot  consent  to  share  His 
prerogative  with  others.  He  absorbs  in  Himself  the 
whole  function  of  mediation.  Through  Him  alone,  with- 
out any  interposing  link  of  communication,  the  human 
soul  has  access  to  the  Father.'     Ibid.  p.  117. 

Again,  on  Iv  avT(2,  'AH  the  laws  and  purposes  which 
guide  the  creation  and  government  of  the  Universe  reside 
in  Him,  the  Eternal  "Word,  as  their  meeting-point.  The 
Apostolic  doctrine  of  the  Logos  teaches  us  to  regard  the 
Eternal   Word   as    holding    the    same    relation   to   the 


I.]  Passages  of  Holy  Scripture.  25 

Universe  which  the  Incarnate  Christ  holds  to  the 
Church.  He  is  the  source  of  its  life,  the  centre  of  all 
its  developments,  the  mainspring  of  all  its  motions.' 
Ibid.,  Notes  on  Col.  i.  16. 

On  hi  avTov.,  '  As  all  creation  passed  out  from  Him,  so 
does  it  all  converge  again  towards  Him.  On  the  com- 
bination of  prepositions  see  Rom.  xi.  ^6.  .  .  .  He  is  not 
only  the  A,  hut  also  the  12  ;  not  only  the  apxri,  but  also 

the  re'Aos  of  creation In  the  Judaic  philosophy  of 

Alexandria  the  preposition  hia  with  the  genitive  was 
commonly  used  to  describe  the  function  of  the  Logos  in 
the  creation  and  government  of  the  world  .  .  .  The  Chris- 
tian Apostles  accepted  this  use  of  hi6.  to  describe  the 
mediatorial  function  of  the  Word  in  creation,'  not  how- 
ever as  'a  passive  tool  or  instrument,'  which  would  be 
rather  denoted  by  the  simple  instrumental  dative  w,  but 
as  '  a  co-operating  agent.'    Ibid. 

On  et?  avTov,  '  All  things  must  find  their  meeting-point, 
their  reconciliation,  at  length  in  Him  from  Whom  they 
took  their  rise — in  the  Word  as  the  mediatorial  agent, 
and  through  the  Word  in  the  Father  as  the  primary 
source.  The  Word  is  the  final  cause  as  well  as  the 
Creative  agent  of  the  Universe  .  .  the  goal  .  .  as  He  was 
the  starting-point.'  Idid.  But  the  whole  of  Bishop 
Lightfoot's  full  notes  on  Coloss.  i.  15-17  should  be  very 
carefully  studied. 

And  Oosterzee,  Ckrislian  Bogynafics,  Section  Ivi.  6,  '  It 
is  an  essential  element  in  the  Christian  belief  in  creation 
that  He  Whom  we  confess  as  Redeemer  was  in  His 
higher  nature  the  mediate  cause  of  the  creation  .  .  . 
These  expressions  (in  the  passages  of  Holy  Scripture 
above  quoted)  can  be  taken  in  no  secondary  sense.  .  .  . 
They  are  wholly  in  harmony  with  that  which  the  Gospel 
proclaims  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Logos,  and  so 
much  the  better  do  they  explain  to  us  wherefore  no 
other  than  the  Christ  is  the  centre  of  God's  Plan  of  the 
world  (§  Iv.)  and  the  Redeemer  of  a  race  to  which  He 


26    Creation  through  the  Woi'd,  Whose  Existence  [lect. 

orlg-inally  stood  in  the  closest  relation.  That  which 
many  a  philosopher  dimly  conjectured,  namely,  that  God 
did  not  produce  the  world  in  an  absolutely  immediate 
manner,  but,  some  way  or  other,  mediately,  here  presents 
itself  to  us  as  invested  with  the  lustre  of  revelation,  and 
exalts  so  much  the  more  the  claim  of  the  Son  of  God  to 
our  deep  and  reverential  homage.' 

15.  In  considering  these  passages  of  Holy  Scripture 
we  observe  that  their  force  is  greatly  weakened  and 
their  meaning  obscured  by  the  rendering  of  the  im- 
portant preposition  hia  as  hy  rather  than  tlirough  in 
our  Authorized  Version.  In  places  where  the  work 
of  Creation  is  alluded  to  passively,  as  in  St.  John  i.  10, 
'O  Koarjuio^  Si'  avTou  eyevero  (The  World  was  made  by 
Him — rather.  The  World  came  into  being  through 
Him),  the  impression  conveyed  to  an  English  reader 
is  that  of  exact  equivalence  to  '  He  made  the  World,' 
whereas,  in  reality,  they  express  the  means  rather 
than  the  primary  Originating  cause.  But  we  see 
clearly  that  wherever  anything  further  is  said  of  the 
work  of  Creation,  beyond  the  primary  truth  that  it 
was  the  act  of  God  as  an  Almighty  Personal  Agent, 
the  Eternal  Son  is  revealed  as  the  Medium  of  His 
Action,  the  invariable  and  the  sole  medium,  tvithout 
Whom  ivas  not  anything  made  that  zvas  made.  (St. 
John  i.  3.) 

16.  In  that  remote  beginning,  of  which  the  opening 
words  of  the  whole  Bible  as  of  St.  John's  Gospel  tell 
us,  in  that  beginning  of  all  else  that  is  outside  the 
timeless  existence  of  Him  Who  has  no  beginning,  no 
end,  even  then,  by  a  necessary  and  eternal  existence 


I.]  is  its  necessary  antecedent  condition.  2  7 

before  all  Creation,  the  Word  teas.  His  Uncreated 
Existence  is  the  necessary  antecedent  condition  of  all 
created  existence.  He  is  in  this  sense  -TrpwroTo/co?  Trao-;;? 
/cTfo-eft)?,  The  Firstborn  before  all  creation.  (Coloss.  i.  15. 
See  on  this  Bishop  Lightfoot's  exhaustive  note,  and 
Dr.  Liddon's  Sixth  Bampton  Lecture.)  The  thought 
of  an  impersonal  or  uni-personal  God  creating  anything 
might  be  almost  described  as  theologically  utottov,  im- 
possible, or  at  least  unworthy  of  the  Creator  and  the 
Creation  alike.  For  the  creature,  at  the  highest,  must 
necessarily  be  at  an  infinite  distance  beneath  the 
Creator,  and  could  never,  of  itself  and  by  itself,  how- 
ever grand  and  vast,  be  a  worthy  and  adequate  exhi- 
bition of  His  Force,  or  a  worthy  object  of  His  Love, 
Who  is  Himself  Infinite.  If  the  Power  and  Fecundity 
of  God  must  express  itself  at  all  it  must  express  itself 
worthily,  adequately.  It  must  beget  that  which  is 
equal  in  Being  and  Essence  to  His  own  Infinity, 
perfect  as  Himself  in  moral  attributes,  complete  in 
likeness  to  Himself,  worthy  and  suflicient  to  have  its 
Being  in  His  Bosom,  in  a  word,  a  Son.  That  posited, 
the  minor,  however  stupendous,  exhibition  of  the  Divine 
Fecundity  and  Love  and  Life,  in  the  evoking  created 
existences  out  of  nothing,  is  in  due  place,  and  becomes 
to  our  thought  conceivable  and  natural.  For  the  Love 
Which  God  is  makes  Him  essentially  Self-Communica- 
tive. And  His  primary  and  necessary  and  plenary 
Self-communication  is  the  Eternal  Generation  of  His 
Only-Begotten  Son.  We  see  then  that  St.  Paul's 
statement  that  the  Son  is  before  all  things,  is  more 
than  a  mere  enhancement  of  the  dignity  of  the  Son. 


28  God  manifested  in  and  through  [lect. 

In  the  connection  in  which  it  stands  it  amounts  to  a 
declaration  that  the  existence  of  the  Son  is  a  necessary- 
antecedent  condition  of  the  existence  of  anything  else 
outside  the  Being  of  God. 

17.  God's  lower  Self-communication,  of  Himself  as 
Being  and  Life,  is  to  Creation.  This  is  not  essential 
or  necessary  from  His  very  Nature  and  the  Law  of  His 
Being,  but  springs  from  the  superabundant  overflowing 
of  His  Love.  The  Sight  of  God  manifested  is  the 
overflowing  joy  of  all  intelligences  in  the  proportion  in 
which  they  are  morally  and  intellectually  capable  of  it. 
This  is  essential  joy,  for  it  is  the  Joy  of  God.  In  the 
Three  Persons  of  the  Ever-Blessed  Trinity  there  is  an 
infinite  capacity  of  this  supreme  Joy.  In  an  absolute 
and  plenary  sense  the  Father  hnoivetli  the  Son,  and 
the  Son  hnowetli  the  Father,  and  as  the  spirit  of  man 
which  is  in  him  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  even  so  the 
Sjoirit  of  God  hioweth  the  things  of  God  (i  Cor.  ii.  11). 
In  the  sight  of  Himself  in  a  Perfect  Son  is  the 
supreme  overflowing  Joy  of  the  Father.  In  the  sight 
of  the  Father  is  the  supreme  overflowing  Joy  of  the 
Son.  Only  to  the  Divine  Persons  can  this  supreme 
Joy  belong,  for  only  the  Divine  has  infinite  capacity  to 
know  and  to  contain,  to  apprehend  and  fully  to  com- 
prehend, the  Infinite.  But  this  joy  might  be  com- 
municated to  inferior  capacities  according  to  their 
measure.  The  Love  of  God  willed  that  it  should  be 
so  communicated;  and  with  that  joy,  and  as  an  essential 
part  of  it,  the  answering  attracted  love  towards  God 
which  the  sight  of  Him  compels  :  and,  with  that  again, 
the  movement  towards  God  in  a  growing  likeness  to 


I.]  the  Eternal  Word,  29 

Him  on  Whom  the  gaze  of  loving  adoration  is  ever 
fixed ;  and,  as  a  consequence  of  this,  multiplied  in- 
finitely among  the  inconceivable  multitudes  of  the 
countless  worlds  of  an  Universe  of  inconceivably  vast 
extent,  as  a  consequence  of  this,  in  the  thought  of  the 
sum-total  of  creaturely  happiness  and  of  creaturely 
loving  worship,  so  rendered  possible,  an  increase  of  that 
(which  admits  of  no  increase),  the  Joy  and  the  Glory 
of  the  adorable  Author  of  all. 

But  this  glorious  result  must  be  attained  through 
the  Son,  the  One  Mediator.  It  is  inconceivable  with- 
out Him,  apart  from  Him.  In  His  Existence  first,  by 
an  essential,  and  so  eternal,  act  of  Self-Communication 
of  the  One  Original  Being  and  Life,  lay  the  possibility 
of  further,  though  inferior,  communication  of  being  and 
life,  and  of  consciousness  of  themselves  and  of  God,  to 
created  and  dependent  natures. 

And  so  Creation  must  be  tlirongh  Him,  as  the 
Thought,  Reason,  Wisdom,  and,  further,  the  Speech  of 
God.  For  He  is  the  Logos  in  both  senses,  ev^idOero^ 
and  TTpocpopiKos  (see  above,  §  1 3).  The  inspired  use  of 
the  word  to  express  His  inner  and  eternal  relation  to 
the  Father  compels  the  further  conception  of  a  mani- 
festation ad  extra,  in  addition  to  that  of  His  supplying 
ad  intra  the  Manifestation  of  God  to  Himself. 

Compare  Dr.  Liddon,  Bamjjlon  Lectures,  Led.  V.  'The 
Logos  necessarily  suggests  to  our  minds  the  further  idea 
of  communicativeness ;  the  Logos  is  Speech  as  well  as 
Thouo'ht.  And  of  His  actual  self-communication  St. 
John  mentions  two  phases  or  stages ;  the  first  creation, 
the  second  revelation.     The  Word  uuveils  Himself  to  the 


30  as  the  Son,  the  Only -Begot  ten,  [lect. 

soul  tliroug-h  the  mediation  of  objects  of  sense  in  the 
physical  world,  and  He  also  unveils  Himself  immediately. 
According-ly  St.  John  says  that  "all  thing-s  were  made" 
by  the  Word,  and  that  the  Word  Who  creates  is  also  the 
Reveal er :  "the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among 
us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory."  ' 

1 8.  Again,  Creation  must  be  through  Him  as  the 
Son,  and  dependent  on  His  Existence  as  the  Son ;  the 
Generation  of  the  Son  being  the  essential,  necessary, 
eternal,  infinitely  perfect  result  of  God's  productive 
power,  in  which,  as  in  their  germ  and  principle,  all 
other  forms  and  degrees  of  production  were  contained, 
as  the  Ideas  and  Archetypes  of  all  created  things  were 
eternally  in  the  mind  and  thought  of  God. 

Liddon,  Bampton  Lectures,  Lect.  FT.  '  There  was  no 
creative  process  external  to  and  independent  of  Him  ; 
since  the  archetypal  forms  after  which  the  creatui*es  are 
modelled,  and  the  sources  of  their  strength  and  con- 
sistency of  being  eternally  reside  in  Him.'  .  .  .  .  '  In  kv 
avTM  ....  although  the  preposition  immediately  expresses 
the  dependence  of  created  life  upon  Christ  as  its  cause  it 
hints  at  the  reason  of  this  dependence,  namely,  that  our 
Divine  Lord  is  the  causa  exemplans  of  creation,  the 
Kocrixos  vo-qros,  the  Archetype  of  all  created  things.' 

As  the  word  Movoyevrig  (Only-Begotten,  or  rather, 
Only-Born)  expresses  the  unique  and  transcendent 
relation  of  the  Second  Person  to  the  First  within 
the  One  Indivisible  Essence,  so  the  word  UpwroTOKo^ 
(First-born)  as  used  by  St.  Paul  {Coloss.  i.  15)  in  the 
phrase  YlpooroTOKo^  7raV>/9  /cr/creo)?  (First-born  before  all 
Creation)  expresses  His  unique  and  transcendent  and 
necessary   relation   to   all    created   existence.      In   the 


I.]  the  Image,  of  God.  31 

heginning,  when  God  created  the  Heavens  and  the 
Earth,  the  Word  already  tvas,  and  so  through  Him  was 
the  whole  Universe  (tu  irdirra)  created. 

19.  Again,  Creation  must  be  through  the  Second 
Person  as  He  is  the  Wikwv  (Image)  of  the  Invisible  God. 
If  such  elements  and  features  of  the  Nature  and  Attri- 
butes of  God  as  could  be  manifested  in  the  miniature 
forms  of  created  and  finite  life  were  to  be  thus  mani- 
fested and  expressed — for  the  greater  glory  of  God  in 
the  dehght  felt  by  His  intelligent  creatures  in  the 
beauty  and  order,  and  in  the  forces  and  powers  and 
uses  of  a  vast  Universe,  as  exhibitions  of  the  Power 
and  Wisdom  and  Love  of  God,  and  so  a  mirror  wherein, 
in  a  measure,  God  Himself  might  be  seen  and  known 
(see  Acts  xiv.  15-17  ;  Romans  i.  19,  20) — if  there  was 
to  be  this  kind  of  Kevelation  of  God,  then  it  must 
necessarily  be  through  Him  Who  is  absolutely,  perfectly, 
and  adequately,  the  Image  of  God,  It  pre-supposes  His 
Pre-existence. 

Liddon,  Bampfoii  Lectures,  Led.  VI.  'The  dKUiv  is 
indeed  originally  God's  unbegun,  unending  refleetion  of 
Himself  in  Himself;  but  the  dKutv  is  also  the  Organ 
Whereby  God,  in  His  Essence  invisible,  reveals  Himself 
to  His  creatures.  Thus  the  et/cwy  is,  so  to  speak,  naturally 
the  Creator,  since  creation  is  the  first  revelation  which 
God  has  made  of  Himself.' 

This  is  more  especially  seen  to  be  a  necessary  truth 
when  viewed  on  its  moral  side.  If  on  any  minor  scale 
the  moral  attril)utes  of  God,  His  Eighteousness  and 
Purity,  His  Holiness  and  Love,  were  to  be  expressed 
in  created  and  finite  natures,  to  whom  should  be  given 


32  The  Father  the  Fountain^theSontheWell, of  Life.  [lect. 

the  capacity  of  an  unspeakable  happiness  in  the  pos- 
session and  exercise,  towards  Him  and  towards  each 
other,  of  natures  and  qualities  like  those  of  God,  ihen^ 
necessarily,  such  finite  natures  must  be  created,  as  Holy 
Scripture  tells  us  they  were,  in  the  image  and  after 
the  likeness  of  God.  For  this  reason  again,  and  more 
especially,  must  they  be  created  through  Him  who  is 
the  absolute  and  perfect  Image  of  God. 

20.  And  further,  if  weaker  and  dependent  life,  in 
beings  created  out  of  nothing  and  so  finite,  was  to 
be  called  into  existence,  it  must  be  through  Him  in 
Whom  ivas  Life  by  plenary  and  infinite  communica- 
tion from  the  Father,  that  is,  through  the  Son ;  for  as 
the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself  so  hath  He  given  to 
the  Son  to  have  Life  in  Himself  {St.  John  v.  26),  so 
that  He  as  well  as  the  Father  is  Life,  the  Life  of  all 
that  lives.  Life  must  flow  from  the  Father,  the  in- 
exhaustible Fount  and  Spring  of  all  Life,  into  Him 
Who  is  the  overflowing  and  inexhaustible  Keservoir  of 
Life,  the  Well  of  Life  Who  is  with  God  (Psalm  xxxvi. 
9),  and  so  to  Creation  from  Him  from  Whose  fulness 
all  else  that  lives  has  received  (St.  John  i.  1 6)  its  several 
share  of  the  gift  of  Life. 

21.  Standing  thus  on  the  level  of  New  Testament 
Revelation,  and  looking  back  on  the  partial  and  pre- 
paratory Eevelation  of  the  Old  Testament  as  Christian 
believers,  we  see  in  it,  whether  in  its  dogmatic  state- 
ments, its  historic  records,  its  actual  religious  ob- 
servances, or  its  forward-looking  prophetic  utterances, 
a  far  deeper  and  fuller  meaning  than  they  who  lived 
under  the  Old  Dispensation,  or  even  they  who  were 


I.]       Old  Tesfament  intimations  of  the  Trinity.       33 

tlie  vehicles  of  its  Inspiration,  could  themselves  be 
conscious  of.  In  this  we  find  a  real  confirmation  of 
our  faith.  Such  thoughts  are  indeed  no  argument  to 
those  who  believe  not ;  and  are  not  offered  as  such. 
But  to  the  believer  in  Inspiration,  wlio  knows  that 
liohj  men  of  old  sjycike  as  they  zvere  moved  hy  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  allegation,  that  such  and  such  a  view 
is  beyond  the  thought  and  consciously-intended  meaning 
of  those  writers  themselves  at  the  time,  is  no  difficulty 
whatever.  Inspired  as  they  were  to  speak  of  things  to 
come,  the  scope  of  their  utterances  must  necessarily 
have  been  beyond  the  grasp  of  their  own  conscious 
thought.  They  knew  this  ;  they  knew  that  not  unto 
themselves  hut  unto  us  they  did  minister  the  things 
(i  Peter  i.  12)  the  fulfilment  of  which  was  announced 
by  the  first  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  and  for  this  very 
reason  they  searched  ivhat  and  what  manner  of  time 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  ivhich  ivas  in  them  did  signify. 
(Hid.)  To  limit  the  meaning  and  scope  of  the  Sacred 
Writings  of  either  Testament  to  that  of  which  their 
human  writers  were  conscious,  and  to  treat  that  as 
necessarily  exhaustive,  is,  of  course,  really  to  deny 
Inspiration  altogether. 

In  the  plural  name  of  God  ;  in  the  form  of  the 
utterance  of  the  great  resolve.  Let  ns  make  man  in 
our  i^nage,  after  our  likeness ;  in  the  sayings.  Behold, 
the  man  is  become  as  one  of  us,  and,  Let  us  go  doini 
and  confound  their  language;  in  the  Mlwm  shall  I 
send,  and  tcho  icill  go  for  us,  of  the  great  vision  of 
Isaiah  ;  we  discern  not  a  mere  dignity  of  phrase,  but 
the  intimation  of  a  great  mystery.     In  like  manner, 

D 


34  The  Personal  Wisdom  of  God  [lect, 

in  much  of  the  Old  Testament  language  about  the 
word  of  God  we  trace  an  admissible  and  very  striking, 
if  not  always  a  necessary,  personal  sense ;  of  which 
indeed  the  paraphrases  and  commentaries  of  later 
Jewish  writers  themselves  after  the  close  of  the  Old 
Testament  Canon  show  an  evident  consciousness. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  phenomeua  of  the  Old 
Testament,  as  preparatory  to  the  full  disclosure  of  the 
existence  of  personal  distinctions  within  the  Divine 
Nature,  and  of  the  great  work  of  the  Son  of  God,  are 
the  occasional  Appearances  of  God  in  visible  form  ; 
especially  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  general 
statement  of  Holy  Scripture  that  None  {ovSel?)  hath 
seen  God  at  any  time.  These  will  demand  a  separate 
consideration,  as  examples  of  the  truth  enunciated  by 
St.  John  that,  before  the  Son  of  God  came  unto  His 
own  land  and  people  in  the  actual  Incarnation,  He 
ivas  in  the  world  though  the  world  hneiv  Him  not. 
{St.  John  i.  lo,  II  ;  on  which  see  Professor  Westcott  in 
the  Speaker's  Commentary.)  But  there  is  one  sublime 
passage  which  now,  to  us,  and  viewed  as  we  may  and 
must  view  it,  is  full  of  so  glorious  light  and  beauty  that 
we  cannot  more  appropriately  illustrate  what  has  now 
been  set  forth  than  in  its  exquisite  language.  It  is  the 
Eternal  Personal  Wisdom  of  God  Who  speaks,  [Pro- 
verhs  viii) : — 

T//e  LonB  possessed  Me,  the  Befinnhig  of  Ills  Way, 

Before  His  works  of  old. 

I  was  anointed  from  everlastinff, 

From  the  first,  from  the  heginnings  of  the  earth. 

When  there  loere  no  depths  I  was  brought  forth, 


I.]  the  Agent  of  Creation.  35 

When  there  were  no  fountains  abounding  with  tcater. 

Before  the  mountains  were  settled, 

Before  the  hills,  teas  I  brought  forth. 

While  as  yet  He  had  not  made  the  earth,  nor  the  fields. 

Nor  the  first  clods  of  the  tvorld. 

When  He  prepared  the  heavens  I  was  there ; 

When  He  set  a  canopy  over  the  face  of  the  deep: 

When  He  established  the  shies  above: 

When  the  fountains  of  the  deep  waxed  strong : 

When  He  gave  to  the  sea  its  bounds. 

That  the  loaters  should  not  pass  their  border; 

When  He  appointed  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ; 

Then  I  was  by  Him,  I  the  Builder ; 

And  I  was  daily  His  delight,  rejoicing  alioays  before  Him; 

Rejoicing  in  His  habitable  earth; 

And  my  delights  were  with  the  sons  of  me)i. 

On  the  whole  we  should  judge  that  the  truth,  re- 
vealed in  various  forms  with  such  uniform  consistency 
in  Holy  Scripture,  that  the  Father  created  all  things 
through  the  Son  has  the  appearance  of  a  necesscunj 
truth,  the  expression  of  that  which.  Creation  being 
given,  could  not  be  otherwise.  Indeed  we  might 
almost  assume  a  'priori  that  such  a  character  of  ne- 
cessity, arising  from  the  Law  of  His  ow-n  Being 
whereby  God  is  What  He  is,  would  attach  to  the 
mode  of  the  Divine  operation,  especially  in  so  supreme 
an  example  of  it ;  so  that  we  may  believe  not  only  tliat 
it  is  so,  but  that  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  In  this 
sense  therefore,  that  the  original  act  of  Creation  passed 
necessarily  through  Him  as  its  effecting  Agent,  we 
ascribe  to  the  Son  of  God,  as  such,  and  in  His  Divine 
Personality,  an  inherently  Mediatorial  character  re- 
latively to  Creation  as  a  collective  whole,  and  especially 

D  2 


36     The  Universe  upheld  by  the  Son  of  God.     [lect. 

to  created  life,  and,  more  especially  again,  to  intelligent 
and  conscious  created  life  in  personal  beings  with  will 
and  moral  choice. 

2  2.  But  we  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  sublime 
statements  of  Holy  Scripture  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  the  Universe.  He  is  not  only  the 
Agent  of  its  beginning  and  origination,  He  is  also  tlie 
Means  of  its  continuance  and  preservation.  In  Him 
as  well  as  through  Him,  ivere  all  tilings  created,  and 
in  Him  all  things  consist  {Coloss.  i.  17);  for  He 
ufholdeth  all  things  hy  the  word  of  His  ^ower  {Heh, 
i.  3).  This  is  said  expressly  of  the  Son  ;  and  so  of 
Him,  doubtless,  may  we  correctly  understand  the  more 
general  statement  of  the  Apostle  to  the  heathen 
Athenians  that  in  God  ive  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  heing  [Acts  xvii.  28).  In  like  sense  must  we 
understand  also  the  language  of  St.  John  (Gosjjel,  i.  4), 
that  in  Him  loas  Life,  and  the  Life  tvas  the  Light 
of  men.  This  indeed  carries  us  further  than  our  pre- 
sent point ;  but  because  it  does  so  it  includes  it.  For 
by  Light  we  must  here  understand  moral  and  in- 
tellectual Light,  as  both  derived  to  Man  from  the  Son 
of  God,  being  the  higher  forms  of  that  life  which  they 
have  from  Him  Who  is  the  Life.  But  if  the  higher 
forms  of  life  are  from  Him,  much  more  the  lower  life, 
which  is  their  ground  and  condition,  and  so  their  whole 
being,  is  from  Him  in  Whom  ive  live.  Conversely,  as 
Creation  must  Scripturally  be  considered  as  holding 
together  in  the  Word,  so  are  we  taught  that  the 
Word  has  always  been  and  is  in  Creation.  So  St. 
John  says,  He  ivas  in  the  ivorld,  and  the  ivorld   was 


I.]  Loss  involved  in  partial  viczus  of  His  Mediation.  37 

made,  hy  Him,  though  the  ivorlcl  hneio  Him  not. 
This  is  the  truth  of  His  immanence  in  creation  as 
the  very  base  and  ground-condition  of  its  continuance. 
In  this  truth  again,  viewed  thus  on  its  two  sides,  as 
the  world  is  in  Him  and  as  He  is  in  the  tvorlcl,  is 
inherently  contained  the  idea  of  a  mediatorial  relation 
in  respect  of  the  preservation,  as  well  as  in  respect  of 
the  origination,  of  the  Universe. 

23.  We  cannot  but  think  that  Christian  Theology 
has  lost,  both  in  breadth  and  depth  and  height,  from 
the  general  absence  of  sufficient  appreciation  of  these 
far-reaching  and  pregnant  truths ;  and  from  the  cus- 
tomary restriction  of  the  idea  of  Mediation  on  the 
part  of  tlie  Son  of  God  to  His  redeeming  work  for 
man  as  fallen.  Nothing,  we  may  readily  allow,  can 
be  more  natural  than  that  restriction.  We  miserable 
heirs  of  sin  and  shame,  conscious  of  the  evil  and  moral 
fiiilure  and  alienation  from  God  in  ourselves,  and 
sickened  by  the  grotesque  misery  and  sin  and  de- 
gradation of  human  nature,  especially  as  it  has  been 
and  is  without  Christ,  and  so,  for  the  most  part, 
amid  all  its  griefs,  without  hojie  and  without  God,  we 
cannot  but  dwell  with  overpowering  amazement,  and 
gaze  with  an  absorbing  interest,  on  the  work  of  moral 
and  spiritual  restoration  as  wrought  by  the  Incarnate 
Mediator,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus.  But — such  is  the 
limitation  of  human  powers — the  very  fact  that  we 
do  so,  and  rightly  and  necessarily  do  so,  creates  the 
risk  of  insufficient  attention  to  other  glorious  truths, 
which  are  not  only  equally  true,  but  are  also  perfectly 
harmonious  with  the  truths  which  more  especially  and 


o 


8  The  actiuxl  Incarnation  of  the  Son  is       [lect. 


vitally  concern  us ;  nay,  further,  lead  us  on  and  up  to 
the  fuller,  larger,  conception  of  a  whole  of  which  such 
special  truths  are  a  part,  and  so  put  these  special 
truths  themselves  into  a  truer  position  in  the  abstract, 
and  tend  to  give  us  a  firmer  and  more  unassailable 
grasp  of  them.  When  it  is  seen  that  to  the  Eternal 
Word  of  God,  the  Second  Person  m  the  One,  Holy, 
and  Undivided  Trinity,  there  belongs,  as  such,  a  Me- 
diatorial Cliaracter,  and  that  all  the  ad  extra  action  of 
the  Eternal  Father  has  passed,  and  passes,  and  that 
necessarily,  through  Him,  the  One  Mediator,  alike  in  the 
orisfination  and  in  the  maintenance  and  administration 
of  the  Universe — our  conception  of  which  and  of  its 
extent  and  possibilities  has  been  so  wonderfully  en- 
larged by  the  discoveries  of  Science  even  within  the 
last  fifty  years,  and  of  which  we  and  our  little  globe 
seem  to  form  so  infinitesimal  a  part — then  the  sjDecial 
character  of  His  Mediation  in  the  afiairs  of  this  un- 
happy province  of  His  illimitable  Eealm,  the  special 
kindness  and  cpiXavOpcoTrla  (love  to  man,  Titus  iii.  4) 
wdiereby  according  to  His  mercy  He  saved  us  from 
the  deathly  grasp  of  His  and  our  enemy,  seems  to 
fall  into  its  place.  Stupendous  as  it  is,  and,  possibly, 
unique  in  its  manifestation  of  the  moral  attributes  of 
Him  Whose  very  Being  is  Love,  it  becomes  almost 
(as  we  may  say)  natux'al  and  of  course. 

24.  Mediation,  in  the  sense  of  Atonement  and  Re- 
conciliation as  between  God  and  man  as  fallen,  and  of 
conveyance  of  grace  from  God  to  man  as  fallen,  does 
not  exhaust  the  idea  of  Mediation  as  between  God  and 
man  as  man.     Had  man  never  sinned,  Mediation  and 


I.]  tJic  complete  development  of  Jllediation,  39 

a  Mediator  bad  still  been  needed,  as  tbe  means  of 
communion  between  bim  and  bis  Maker,  tlie  means 
whereby  tbe  longing  love  and  worsbip  of  tbe  creature 
sbould  ascend  to  tbe  Creator,  and  progressive  blessing 
descend  from  Him  upon  tbe  creature ;  and  of  tliis 
Mediation,  wlien  fully  developed,  tbe  Incarnation  migbt 
still,  even  witbout  tbe  necessity  of  tbe  Atoninof  Suf- 
fering  and  Deatb,  bave  been  tbe  ultimate  and  perfect 
form.  Tbus  tbe  great  saying  (1  Tim.  ii.  5),  There  is 
One  God,  and  One  Mediator  between  God  and  men, 
the  Man  Christ  Jesus,  bad  still,  in  any  case,  been 
empbatically  true,  even  bad  sin  not  made  it  necessary 
for  Him  to  give  Himself  a  ransom  for  all.  It  does 
not  follow  tbat,  because,  in  tbat  saying,  tbe  Apostle 
lays  especial  empbasis  on  tbe  Humanity  of  tbe  Mediator, 
therefore  His  Mediation  is  to  be  tbougbt  of  only  as 
restricted  to  His  reconciling  work  between  God  and 
man  as  sinful.  Since  tbat  is  tbe  special  subject  of  tbe 
passage  (as  tbe  mention  of  tbe  ransom  shows),  nothing 
is  more  natural  than  tbat  attention  should  be  so  drawn 
to  the  Incarnation  ;  but  it  does  not  therefore  follow 
that  tbe  Incarnation,  as  the  union  of  the  Creator  with 
the  creature,  though  actually  effected  iu  the  nature 
of  man,  may  not  have  far  wider  bearings,  and  extend 
in  its  effects  and  benefits  to  tbe  whole  of  that  Creation 
of  which  man,  compounded  as  he  is  of  elements  material 
and  spiritual,  is  the  wonderful  epitome  and  microcosm. 
Tbus  we  are  led  to  tbe  great  thought  that  the  In- 
carnation as  the  perfect  instrument  of  IMediatioii,  in  its 
widest  sense,  may  have  been  included  in  tbe  original 
thought,  in  the  Eternal  Purpose,  of  God,  even  apart 


40    but  He  was  the  Mediator  even  before  that.   [lect. 

from  the  foreseen  contingeDcy  of  the  entrance  of  Evil 
and  Sin,  and  so  of  death  and  ruin  in  separation  from 
God,  into  a  portion  of  His  very  good  Creation.  But 
of  this  we  shall  speak  hereafter.     (Lecture  III.) 

25.  That  the  Son  of  God  as  Incarnate  is  the  Mediator 
of  Eedemption  is  the  faith  of  all  Christians  ;  and,  being 
accepted  as  a  broad  foundation  truth  of  our  religion, 
needs  no  special  enforcement  now.  It  will  be  our  endea- 
vour to  exhibit  in  the  closing  Lectures  {VI,  VII,  VIII) 
of  this  series  the  special  forms  and  phases  of  this  work, 
in  its  earthly  and  in  its  heavenly  stages. 

Yet,  just  as  we  believe  that  a  strictly  Mediatorial 
work  and  function  belongs  to  the  Son  of  God  in  His 
Divine  Nature,  in  respect  of  His  general  sovereign 
relation  to  the  Universe,  in  its  origination  and  in  its 
continuance  and  administration  (and  this  apart  from 
the  special  work  of  Eedemption),  so  we  believe  that, 
in  the  special  work  of  Redemption,  His  gracious  in- 
terest in  and  intervention  for  His  creature  man  is  not 
to  be  restricted,  if  we  would  rightly  understand  it  in 
its  due  connection  and  place,  to  the  period  since  His 
actual  Incarnation.  Rather  is  that  the  climax  of  a 
long  course  of  previous  visitations  and  dispensations 
•of  mercy,  whereby  it  was,  in  various  ways,  as  we  can 
now  clearly  see,  foreshadowed  and  prepared  for  by  the 
loving,  though  as  yet  the  veiled  and  unrecognised, 
action  of  the  gracious  Son  of  God,  the  tender  and 
patient  TraiSaycoyog  (Educator),  to  use  the  expressive 
phrase  of  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  the  '  loving 
Wisdom  of  our  God'  (Newman's  Bream  of  Gerontius), 
Who   rejoiced    in    His   hahitalle   earth   from   the    be- 


I.]         The  Old  Testament  in  sufficiently  studied.        41 

ginning  of  its  existence,  and  Whose  delights  were  ever 
witli  the  sons  of  men,  to  whose  nature  He  was  one  day 
to  hnk  Himself  in  vital  personal  union,  and  so  make  it, 
and  lis,  His  very  own  for  ever ;  to  Whom  be  the  glory 
for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 

26.  The  recollection  of  this  truth  (on  which  perhaps 
sufficient  stress  is  not  generally  laid  in  the  thoughts 
of  even  devout  and  educated  believers),  is,  we  are  per- 
suaded, really  necessary  to  the  full  strength  of  the 
argument  for  Christianity.  It  is,  no  doubt,  only 
natural  that  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  should 
have  been  more  studied  than  those  of  the  Old.  Their 
original  language  is  more  generally  known ;  tlie  ren- 
dering of  them  in  the  Authorized  Version  is  more 
accurate  than  that  of  the  Old.  They  contain  fewer 
difficulties ;  their  meaning,  on  the  whole,  lies  more  on 
the  surface ;  their  application  to  our  own  spiritual  life 
and  its  circumstances  is  more  direct  and  obvious.  A 
mistaken  and  partial  view  of  St.  Paul's  teaching  has, 
perhaps,  in  certain  schools  of  thought,  led  to  an  untrue 
disparagement  of  the  Old  Testament  as  compared  to 
the  New,  as  if  it  were  opposed,  and  even  contradictory 
to  it ;  as  if  there  were  an  impassable  chasm,  an  entire 
breach  of  continuity,  between  the  Christian  and  all 
previous  Dispensations.  The  language  of  our  Seventh 
Article,  that  '  The  Old  Testament  is  not  contrary  to 
the  New,  for  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
everlasting  life  is  offered  to  Mankind  by  Christ,  who 
is  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  Man,  being  both 
God  and  Man,'  and  that  '  The  old  Fathers  did  not  look 
only  for  transitor}'  promises,'  still   bears  witness  to  a 


42    Continuity  of  God's  dealings  with  Mankind,  [lect. 

sense  on  the  part  of  our  Reformers  of  the  existence  of 
some  misapprehensions  of  this  kind  in  some  forms  of 
theological  thought  current  in  their  day.  And  this, 
notwithstanding  the  equally  real  phenomenon  of  a 
tendency  in  some  quarters  to  lay  undue  stress  upon, 
and,  often  in  a  mischievous  way,  to  revive  and  adopt 
certain  features  of  Jewish  civil  and  social  life,  or  of 
Jewish  moral  and  religious  habits  of  thought. 

Surely  any  failure  to  perceive  and  to  take  due 
account  of  the  great  truth  of  the  continuity  and  pro- 
gressiveness  of  God's  dealings  with  mankind  as  fallen 
through  successive  dispensations  of  mercy,  any  dis- 
regard or  forgetfulness  of  the  essential  coherence  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  of  the  Jewish  and 
Christian  Churches,  involves  a  serious  w^eakening  of 
OLir  grasp  of  Revelation  as  a  whole,  and  of  our  sense 
of  its  grand  historic  reality  as  enshrined,  first,  in  the 
very  being  of  the  Jewish  Race  and  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and,  secondly,  in  the  Literature,  inspired  or 
other,  of  both.  We  will  even  go  farther  and  say,  that 
it  must,  in  our  judgment,  deprive  us  of  the  one  and 
only  key  to  the  true  interpretation  of  past  human 
history  as  a  whole  ;  and,  consequently  upon  that  as 
well  as  in  itself,  disable  us  from  anything  but  the 
merest  conjecture  as  to  its  future  course  and  ultimate 
destiny.  It  must  leave  it,  as  a  whole,  in  our  view  of 
it,  nothing  but  a  tangled  mass  of  confused  and  un- 
intelligible details,  a  puzzle  wholly  insoluble  and 
arbitrary,  a  middle  to  which  we  have  no  clue,  painfully, 
nay  vitally,  interesting  as  it  is  to  the  true  patriot  and 
the    generous    humanitarian,  amid   the   growing   diffi- 


l]       CJivist  the  Supreme  Personage  in  History,       43 

culties,  social,  industrial,  political,  of  the  older  nations  ; 
not  to  speak  of  the  deeper  but  connected  evils  which 
the  march,  however  magnificent,  of  a  material  civi- 
lisation, and  the  advancement,  however  striking,  of 
science,  theoretical  or  applied,  can  do  nothing  to  cure 
or  to  remove,  and,  for  the  masses  of  mankind,  but  little 
to  relieve  or  to  compensate. 

27.  Judaism  was  a  forward-looking  Religion;  and 
so,  essentially  so,  is  Christianity,  its  perfected  de- 
velopment. Christianity,  and  Christianity  alone,  has 
the  hopes  of  the  future  in  its  bosom,  the  key  of  the 
future  in  its  hand.  The  common  corporate  consciousness 
of  believing  Christendom  knows  this ;  because,  amid 
whatever  eclipses  of  faith  among  individuals  or  nations, 
its  eye  has  been  ever  uplifted  to  One  glorious  Per- 
sonage, Eternal  and  Divine,  One  grand  central  Figure, 
Who  dominates  human  history  from  first  to  last,  as 
He  does  all  history  of  worlds  of  being  beyond  our 
ken.  One  Who,  now  as  always,  always  as  now,  before 
or  since  His  manifestation  in  the  flesh,  is  the  King  of 
Men,  the  real  operative  and  controlling  spiritual  force 
in  human  history  throughout,  the  Alpha  and  the 
Omega,  the  Beginning  and  the  End,  the  Eternal  Son 
of  God,  the  Lord,  and  the  Heir,  of  all  things,  for  us 
made  Man.  To  Him  as  Man  in  His  ascended  glory  is 
given  the  Name  that  is  above  every  name,  iliat  in  the 
Name  of  Jesiis  every  knee  should  how,  of  things  in  heaven, 
and  things  on  the  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth ; 
and  that  every  tongue  shoidd  confess  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father  (Phil.  ii.  10). 
Of  old,  The  Lord  sat  throned  ahove  the  Deluge  {Psalm 


44        i^i<^  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of  Lords. 

xxix.  9),  and  now,  as  then,  tlie  Lord  sitteth  King  for 
ever.  Him  we  own  as  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of 
Loi'ds,  to  Whom  all  poiver  is  given ^  in  Heaven  and  on 
earth  {St.  Matt,  xxviii.  18),  in  the  unseen  worlds  and  in 
the  seen,  in  things  eternal  and  in  the  things  of  time  : — 

Ever  since  the  world  began  hath  Thij  Throne  been  prepared^ 

Thou  art  from  everlasting. 

The  floods  are  risen,   0  LoUB, 

The  floods  have  lift  up  their  voice; 

The  floods  lift  up  their  loaves. 

The  waves  of  the  sea  are  w.ighty,  and.  rage  horribly : 

But  yet  the  Lord  Who  dwelleth  on  high  is  mightier. 

{fs.  xciii.) 

The  LouB  is  King,  be  the  people  never  so  impatient : 
He  sitteth  betiveeii  the  Cherubim,  be  the  earth  never  so  unquiet. 

{fs.  xcix.) 

The  faith  of  the  Christian  in  this  great  cardinal 
truth  of  the  Supremacy  of  Clirist  in  the  affiiirs  of 
men,  and  in  His  continuing  guidance  and  governance, 
from  His  unseen  Throne  in  heaven,  both  of  His  Church 
and  of  His  World,  cannot  but  be  greatly  strengthened 
by  the  closer  study  of  the  record  contained  in  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  of  the  energising  of  the 
Word  among  men  before  His  Incarnation. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE    SON    OF    GOD   THE    LIFE    AND    LIGHT 
OF    ALL   CREATION. 

Sf.  Jo/m,  Gospel,  i.  4.    'Ez;  avT^  ^co?;  ijv  (In  Ilim  was  life). 

St.  John,  First  Bpistle,  v.  12.  'O  iyoav  tov  vlov  e'xet  ti]v  (oiTi']V  6  nij 
e\(av  TOV  vlov  TOV  0eoC  Ti]v  C^i]v  ovK  e^ei  (He  that  hath  the 
Son  hath  life  :  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath  not 
life). 

St.  John,  Gospel,  xiv.  6.  'Eyw  etjut  ?/  680?  koI  ?/  aA?/^eta  kolL  1)  (Mi'y 
ovbels  epxfTac  irpo's  tov  iraTepa,  el  jxr]  bi  efjLov  (I  am  the  Way, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life  ;  none  cometh  unto  the  Father  but 
throug-h  Me). 

28.  Seeing,  then,  that  a  Mediatorial  character  belong.s 
necessarily  to  the  Son  of  God  because  the  Act  of  Crea- 
tion was  necessarily  through  Him,  we  have  next  to 
point  out  that  that  Mediatorial  character  is  thence- 
forward exhibited  in  continuous  action  in  the  inflowing 
of  Life,  in  all  its  forms  and  forces  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest,  into  all  living  creatures  from  tlie  Almighty 
Father  through  the  Son. 

Strictly  sjDeaking,  the  Life  of  all  that  lives  is  the 
energy  in  them  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  Who  is 
TO  ^cooTToiov  (the  Giver  of  Life).  This  energy  is  mani- 
fested, in  infinite  gradations,  in  an  ascending  scale 
from  the  lowest  and  most  rudimentary  forms,  from 
mere    growth    and    movement    and    instinct   through 


46  Life  is  given  to  all  through  the  Son.     [lect. 

thoiisfht  and  will  and  moral  affections  and  conscience 
up  to  spiritual  affinity  to  God,  But  that  Life  passes 
ever  and  only  through  the  Son  of  God  to  all  created 
existence.  The  Incarnate  Christ  vouchsafed  a  typical 
example  of  this  truth  when,  on  His  first  meeting  with 
His  Body,  His  redeemed  Church,  in  His  risen  and 
glorified  Humanity,  now  become,  as  the  result  of  His 
finished  work,  the  sacramental  Organ  Whereby  Life  in 
its  hiirhest  form  and  fulness  was  to  be  communicated 
to  that  Body,  He,  on  the  first  Easter-night,  breathed 
on  His  disciples  and  said,  with  words  of  creative  power, 
deceive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost,  giving  the  great  Gift,  in  its 
anticipatory  measure,  by  that  expressive  outward  and 
visible  sio'n.  Christian  faith  has  ever  seen  in  this  car- 
dinal  incident  the  antitype,  for  the  New  Creation,  of 
that  breathing  into  Man's  nostrils  the  breath  of  life 
which  marked  the  first  creation. 

29.  As  the  mediating  source  of  life  to  all  that  lives, 
on  Whom  all  life  depends,  the  Son  of  God,  in  personal 
subordination  to  the  Father,  is,  by  necessary  conse- 
quence, the  Sovereign  Lord  also  and  King  over  all 
that  lives.  The  Royalty  of  the  Only-Begotten  con- 
sists, or  is  exhibited,  in  the  dependence  of  all  created 
existence  upon  Him.  This  gives  Him  a  right  of 
supreme  dominion  over  all,  '  implying,'  as  Bishop 
Pearson  expresses  it  {Creed,  Article  II),  'a  right  of 
possession  and  a  power  of  disposing.'  This  Royalty 
belongs  to  His  superior  Nature  as  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  Heir  of  all  things.  It  is,  as  Bishop  Pearson  says, 
inherent  in  His  Divinity,  and  so  is  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  dominion  over  all  things  which  was  '  bestowed 


II.]  The  Son  is  the  Heir  of  all  things,  47 

upon  His  Humanity.'  The  Human  Royalty  of  Christ 
grows  out  of  this  His  inherent  and  Divine  Eoyalty  by 
way  of  necessary  consequence.  It  was  bestowed  im- 
mediately upon  His  Incarnation  ;  though  developed,  or 
manifested,  by  successive  stages  corresponding  to  the 
progressive  stages  of  His  Work.  It  was  completed  at 
His  Ascension  and  Enthronement  in  our  flesh  at  the 
Right  Hand  of  God. 

But  long  ere  the  Incarnation  His  Throne  had  been 
established  with  the  Father  (Psalm  xlv.  6  ;  Heh.  i.  8). 
During  the  elder  Dispensations,  in  a  mystery  not  as 
yet  fully  revealed,  He  had  been  King  and  Priest  after 
the  order  of  Melchizedeh.  Him  the  Lord  had  set  as 
King  upon  His  holy  hill  of  Zion  [Psalm  ii.)  Of  Him 
it  had  been  written.  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit 
Thou  at  My  right  hand.  .  .  .  The  Lokd  shall  send  the 
rod  of  Thy  poioer  out  of  Zion,  Be  Thou  Ruler  even  in 
the  midst  among  Thine  enemies  {Psalm  ex.)  The  In- 
carnation, and  the  taking  up  the  bestowed  Royalty 
of  which  Bishop  Pearson  speaks,  were  the  jDredestined 
visible  manifestation  of  that  inherent  Rovaltv  which 
had  throughout  belonged  to  Him  as  the  Son,  w^iich 
the  bestowed  Royalty  presupposed,  and  on  which  it 
ultimately  rested. 

30.  From  the  Eternal  Son  ship  of  our  Lord,  and 
connected  with  His  inherent  Royalty,  flows  also,  first. 
His  Divine,  and  then  His  Human  Heir-shijJ.  His 
Heir-ship  and  Sonship  over  all  in  His  Father's  House 
is,  as  Bishop  Pearson  expresses  it,  '  the  necessary  con- 
sequence of  His  Filiation '  as  the  Only  Son  of  God, 
Who  '  t'OijKe  (appointed)  ^r»i  Heir  of  all  things'  {Heh. 


48  for   Whom  all  things  were  made.         [lect. 

i.  2),  Who  loveth  Him  and  hath  given  all  things  into 
His   hand   {St.  John   iii.    35),  Who   sheioeth    Him   all 
things  thai  Himself  doeth  (v.  20),  so  that  What  things 
soever  the  Father  doeth  these  also  doeth  the  Son  liJceivise 
(v.  19).     Hence  the  Son  can  say,  looking  back  upon  a 
far-reaching  past,  My  Father  ivorheth  hitherto,  and  I 
work  (v.  17),  a  saying  whose  height   of  meaning  the 
Jews  immediately  apprehended  rightly,  and  so  sought 
the   more   to   kill   Him,   for  they  perceived   that,    so 
speaking,  He  claimed  God  as  His  Father  in  a  peculiar 
and  unique  sense  {YiaTepa  'ISiov  k'Xeye  tov  Qeov),  mahing 
Himself  equal  ivith  God   (v.   18).       By  His   Heir-ship 
He  was  ever  Lord  and  Master  over  God's  House,  i.e. 
over  the  Universe  {Heh.  iii.  2-6),  faithful  in   His  ad- 
ministration to  Him  That  appointed  Him,  not  only  in 
a  grander  sphere  than  Moses,  but  in  a  superior  and 
wholly  unique  relation,  not  as  a  servant,  hut  as  a  Son, 
Himself  Divine,  worthy  of  more  glory  than  Moses  by 
how  much  He  That  huilt  the  House  hath  more  honour 
than  the  House.     For  every  house  is  huilded  hy  some 
one;  hit  He  that  huilt  All  Things  is  God.     The  same 
truth  lies  also   in   St.  Paul's  words  to  the  Colossians 
(i.  16),  that  as  all  things  were  created  through  the  Son 
and  in  the  Son,  so  also  were  all  things  created  for 
Him  (etV  avrov),  toivards  Him,  or  ivith  a  vieiv  to  Him. 
This  expression  seems  to  point  onwards  to  some  great 
consummation  in  the  remote  future  when,  the  Divine 
Plan  being  fully  worked  out,  all  things  should  become 
His  in  their  completed  and  perfect  and  eternal  state, 
when  the  process  of  evolution  was  complete,  and  so 
should  be  His  abiding  possession  and  inheritance,  His 


II.]   All  Creation  summed  up  in  the  Incarnate  Son.    49 

Kingdom,  vitally  and  organically  linked  with  Himself, 
even  as  to  its  material  elements,  through  the  pre- 
destined Incarnation.  It  is  in  this  connection  that  we 
must  take  account,  in  interpreting  the  ek  avrov  {for 
Him),  of  St.  Paul's  language  to  the  Ephesians  (i.  10), 
wherein  he  says  it  was  part  of  the  mystery  of  God's 
Will  acco7-ding  to  His  good  inleasiire  ichich  He  imrj)osed 
in  Christ  unto  a  disj^ensation  of  the  fidness  of  the  seasons 
to  sum  iij)  cdl  things  (rather  the  ivhole  universe,  auaice- 
(pakaiwa-aaOai  ra  -Trdvra)  in  the  Christ,  hoth  the  things  in 
the  heavens  and  the  things  u^on  the  earth,  in  Him,  in 
Whom  also  we  were  made  an  heritage.  Our  Authorized 
Version  in  this  passage  wrongly  renders  {eKXtjpooQyuxev) 
in  Whom  also  we  have  obtained  an  inheritance ;  for  the 
declaration  here  is  not  that  we  inherit  with  Christ  as 
joint-heirs  (a  glorious  truth  referred  to  three  verses 
later),  but  that  we  ourselves  are  included  as  a  part  in 
Christ's  heritage,  by  our  predestination,  to  His  praise 
and  glory. 

Compare  Dean  Alford's  note  on  Ejjhesians  i.  10,  ii. 
'All  creation  is  summed  up  in  Christ.  It  was  all  the 
result  of  the  love  of  the  Father  for  the  Son,  and  in  the 
Son  it  is  all  reg-arded  by  the  Fatlier.  The  vastly 
different  relation  to  Christ  of  the  different  parts  of 
creation  is  no  objection  to  this  union  in  Him ;  it  affects, 
as  Bengel  says,  on  E-om.  viii.  19,  "each  g-cnns  according- 
to  its  own  receptivity."  The  Church,  of  which  the 
Apostle  here  mainly  treats,  is  subordinated  to  Him  in 
the  highest  degree  of  conscious  and  joyful  union :  those 
who  are  not  His  spiritually,  in  mere  subjugation,  yet 
consciously ;  the  inferior  tribes  of  creation,  unconsciously : 
but  objectively,  all  are  summed  up  in  Ilini;  in  lotiom 
toe  (Christians,  all,  both  Jews  and  Gentiles :  who  are 
E 


50  The  Constimmated  Universe  [lect. 

resolved  below  into  "  me''^  and  "^oz^":  see  on  ver.  12)  were 
also  (besides  having-,  by  His  purpose,  the  revelation  of 
His  will,  ver.  9. — Not,  A.V.  "  m  whom  also'')  taken  for 
His  inheritance  (the  prevalent  idea  of  Israel  in  the  Old 
Test,  is  a  people  whom  the  Lord  chose  for  His  inhe- 
ritance', see  Deut.  iv.  30;  ix.  29;  xxxii.  9;  3  King-s 
viii.  51;  al.)  Olshausen  calls  this  "the  realization  in  time 
of  the  election  in  Christ  spoken  of  before,''  viz.  by  God 
taking-  to  Himself  a  people  out  of  all  nations  for  an 
inheritance — first  in  type  and  germ  in  the  Old  Test., 
then  fully  and  spiritually  in  the  New  Test.' 

31.  The  idea  of  Christ's  Heir-ship  throws  our  thoughts 
onwards  to  a  distant  future ;  to  a  future  we  know  not 
how  distant  even  yet.  Herein  we  perceive  the  dif- 
ference between  His  sovereign  Eoyalty  as  King  and 
His  dignity  as  Heii'  of  all  things.  His  Hoyalty  is 
present  and  immediate,  from  the  first  moment  of  the 
beginning  of  creation.  His  Heir-ship  carries  with  it  a 
promise  of  something  future.  For  its  realization  it 
waits  through  the  long  protracted  processes,  as  they 
seem  to  us,  of  a  wondrous  evolution,  the  length  of 
time  required  for  wliich  is  only  now  beginning  to  be 
apprehended  by  scientific  discovery,  but  which  won- 
derfully enhances  our  conception  of  the  scale  and 
grandeur  of  the  Creation,  of  its  history,  and  of  its 
meaning  and  purpose.  That  purpose  is,  That  in 
its  perfect  consummation  it  should  be  the  glorious 
Heritage  of  the  Only  Son  of  God.  I  speak  of  Creation 
in  its  largest,  most  inclusive,  sense  of  Ta  Havra  (the 
Universe),  the  majestic  whole,  with  its  worlds  within 
worlds  of  inanimate  and  animated  existences,  of  merely 
animal  or  of  conscious  intelligent  existences,  up  to  the 


II.]  the  Heritage  of  the  Incarnate  Son.  5 1 

very  highest.  Vast,  inconceivably  vast,  as  it  is,  there 
is  yet  a  wondrous  unity  and  continuity  throughout  it. 
It  evidently  forms  one  whole  ;  and  is,  as  evidently, 
in  all  its  powers  and  forces  (whether  blind,  and  so 
abjectly  under  uniform  material  law,  or  conscious  and 
so  acting  under  the  higher  and  more  spiritual  law  of 
will  and  choice),  in  all  its  methods  and  processes,  in 
all  its  ends  and  purposes,  subordinate  or  inclusive, 
the  manifest  product  of  one  originating  Mind,  under 
the  over-ruling  guidance  of  one  all-controlling  Will, 
but  all  working  towards  one  final  end,  the  ultimate 
perfection,  as  a  whole  and  in  all  its  parts,  of  the  whole. 
And  all  to  be,  when  so  perfected,  the  Heritage  and 
everlasting  Possession  of  the  Son  of  God ;  to  be  united 
to  God  in  Him  and  through  Him  Who  is  Himself,  in 
His  Incarnation  and  in  His  thenceforward  abiding  Hu- 
manity, the  crowning  product  of  Creation,  imparting 
His  glory  and  His  worthiness  to  the  wdiole. 

Compare  Dorner,  Verson  of  Christ,  vol.  iv.  p.  332. 
'To  the  very  important  thought,  That  the  God-man, 
Jesus  Christ,  is  not  merely  a  means  of  humanity,  that 
is,  for  the  work  of  redemption  in  particular,  but  is  also 
an  end  in  Himself  served  by  the  entire  world,  too  little 
importance  has  frequently  been  attached.' 

32.  Does  this  seem  too  grand  a  view  of  Creation? 
Be  it  remembered.  First  that,  perhaps,  we  cannot  have 
too  high  thoughts,  too  great  expectations,  of  that 
which  God,  infinite  in  power  and  in  wisdom,  has 
vouchsafed  to  make  ;  nor  deem  too  highly  of  its  ca- 
pabilities or  of  His  resources.  Tliere  is  no  end  of 
His  greatness.      We   honour   Him  by  thuiking  much 

E  2 


5  2   Grandeur  of  the  Universe  as  an  Object  of  study,  [lect. 

of,  by  meditating  with  reverent  and  patient  study  on, 
even  the  lowliest  things  that  He  has  made.  Only 
Almighty  Power  could  have  made  the  very  lowest  of 
them.  Marvellous  are  Thy  ivorJcs,  and  that  my  soul 
knoweth  right  ivell.  The  more  intense  the  adoring 
faith  of  the  Christian,  the  deeper  is  the  interest  with 
which  he  observes  and  studies  even  the  material  part 
of  God's  Creation  and  the  lower  forms  of  life ;  the 
more  eager  and  respectful  the  attention  with  which  he 
welcomes  each  fresh  addition  to  the  gradually  un- 
folding Revelation  of  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God  as 
displayed  in  that  world  of  Nature  which,  perhaps,  we 
separate  too  sharply,  and  mark  off  too  jealously,  from 
the  world  of  grace.  Not  only  the  lower  forms  of  life, 
but  even  the  forms  of  inorganic  matter  on  which  the 
great  temple  of  Life  itself  is  founded  and  built  up, 
and  the  mighty  forces  stored  up  even  in  that  which  is 
yet  merely  material,  are  worthy  of  close  and  attentive 
study.  Such  study — gradually  unfolding  their  mani- 
fold wonders,  and  the  new  and  unimagined  uses  to 
which  they  may  be  applied,  in  ministering  to  human 
life  and  reahsing  Man's  appointed  lordship  over  nature 
— can  but  raise,  for  the  devout  and  thoughtful  mind, 
its  conceptions  of  the  meaning  and  ultimate  destiny  of 
the  whole,  and  of  the  magnificent  scale  of  the  pur- 
poses of  God.  Later  generations  will  marvel  that  it 
could  ever  have  entered  into  the  thought  of  any  that 
there  could  be  any  antagonism  between  true  Theology 
and  true  Physical  Science ;  or  that  God's  Kevelation 
of  Himself  in  Creation  and  Nature  could  be  a  less  true 
(albeit  a  less  glorious)  Revelation  of  Himself  than  is 


II.]    No  antagonis7n  between  Science  and  Theology.     53 

His  Revelation  of  Himself  in  Eedemption ;  or  that 
there  could  possibly  be  any  real  contradiction  between 
the  ascertained  truths  of  the  one  and  those  of  the 
other.  That  it  has  ever  been  so  is  but  one  amoncr 
the  many  illustrations  of  the  infirmity  of  narrowness 
which  besets  our  human  nature.  Men's  minds  have 
become  enamoured  of  the  special  pursuits  to  which 
their  thoughts  have  early  been  directed,  and  in  which 
they  have  subsequently  become  absorbed.  Either  of 
these  great  themes  is  so  vast  that  it  may  well  take  up 
the  whole  field  of  any  one  mans  thoughts.  This, 
when  it  has  been  so,  has  tended  to  decrease  sympathy 
with  the  other ;  partly  because  of  its  necessary  un- 
famiharity,  partly  because  of  the  selfish  pride  which 
some  minds  take  in  their  own  pursuits,  especially  when 
those  pursuits  are  the  property  of  comparatively  few. 
Certainly  there  has  been  and  is  an,  it  may  be  un- 
avoidable, one-sidedness  on  both  parts.  Theologians 
and  religious  men  have,  as  a  rule,  known  too  little 
and  thought  too  little  about  Physical  Science  in  any  of 
its  departments.  They  have,  quite  needlessly,  dreaded 
it ;  quite  unworthily  disparaged  it ;  and  have  been  all 
too  ready  to  suppose  that  its  ascertained  truths  could 
be  mischievous  to  faith.  And,  equally,  men  of  science 
have  too  often,  perhaps  more  often  of  the  two,  dis- 
played a  supercilious  ignorance  of  theological  truth 
which  has  warped  their  minds,  in  some  cases,  into  an 
even  ostentatious  animosity  to  faith,  and  made  them 
too  ready  to  claim  a  premature  triumph  over  some 
truth  of  Religion,  real  or  supposed,  long  before  they 
had   really   estabhshed    the   exact  truth  of  their  own 


54  The  Christian  welcomes  all  scientific  discovery,  [lect. 

supposed  discovery,  much  less  fully  thought  out  its 
relation  to  other  truths,  even  of  the  physical  sort. 
Certainly,  to  the  believing  student  of  Nature,  as  he 
watches  with  the  deepest  interest  for  each  new  en- 
largement of  man's  knowledge  of  Nature  and  of  Man, 
no  feeling  can  occur  but  one  of  adoring  gratitude.  He 
rejoices  that  He  Whom  he  knows  as  ilie  true  Light 
that  lighteth  every  man  should,  by  His  operation  in  the 
natural  sphere  of  man's  reason,  have  led  on  any  to  new 
knowledge  of  His  methods  and  processes  in  Nature ; 
though,  if  it  be  so,  they  acknowledged  not  the  guidance, 
but  prided  themselves,  or  allowed  others  to  flatter 
them,  as  though  by  their  own  power  or  strength  they 
had  gotten  them  this  wealth.  The  Christian  welcomes 
gladly  the  grander  thoughts  presented  of  what  may  be 
the  ultimate  consummated  perfection  and  beauty  of 
that  material  habitation,  or  the  forces  and  uses  of  those 
material  powers,  which  shall  be  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  Man  in  his  fully  redeemed  state,  when  the  royal 
charter  of  the  glorious  liberty  and  sovereignty  of  the 
children  of  God,  as  shadowed  forth  in  the  Eighth 
Psalm,  shall,  at  the  length,  be  fully  realized  in  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Christ,  the  Perfect,  the  Ideal  Man,  the 
King  of  Men. 

33.  Great  as  have  been  the  advances  in  both  de- 
partments within  our  own  generation,  and  specially 
hopeful  as  is  the  greatly  increased  interest  in  bibhcal 
study,  there  still  remain,  in  both,  large  tracts  of  pre- 
cious truth  to  be  explored  and  made  our  own.  There 
are  yet,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  regions  of  truth, 
both  Natural  and   Kevealed,   of  which   glimpses  and 


II.]    Much  of  the  Bible  still  imperfectly  imder stood.    55 

guesses,  it  may  be,  have  flashed  on  rare  occasions  on 
the  choicer  and  more  thoughtful  spirits  among  man- 
kind, but  which  did  not  become  the  abiding  reahzed 
possession  of  their  fellows,  nor  even  of  themselves. 
And  there  are  again,  it  may  be,  truths,  more  ascer- 
tained and  familiar,  which  are  far,  as  yet,  from  having 
been  so  thought  out  as  to  yield  their  full  heritage  of 
precious  acquisition  *  far,  as  yet,  from  having  been 
duly  co-ordinated  in  their  proper  relation  to  other 
acknowledged  and  connected  truth,  and  so  brought 
to  bear  with  due  and  needful  influence  on  human  life 
and  action.  In  the  Revelation  of  God's  purposes,  as 
well  as  of  His  past  dealings  with  mankind,  enshrined 
in  the  inspired  pages  of  the  Bible,  there  yet  remain, 
we  are  fully  persuaded,  some  far-reaching,  and,  when 
duly  ascertained,  some  influential  truths  and  principles 
which  are  at  present  altogether  overlooked,  or  but 
dimly  and  uncertainly  apprehended,  in  the  thoughts 
of  Christians  in  general. 

Compare  DoUinger,  First  Age  of  the  Church,  Preface, 
'  These  beginnings '  (the  Original  Apostohc  Church) 
*  contain  the  powers  and  secrets  of  a  culture  which, 
embracing  the  whole  of  humanity  io  its  universal  scope, 
is  still,  after  eighteen  centuries,  ever  receiving  new  life 
and  in  constant  growth;  there  is  laid  up  in  them  a 
wealth  of  creative  ideas,  a  fulness  of  new  forms  in 
Church,  in  State,  in  Art,  in  Knowledge,  and  in  Manners, 
which  are  far,  indeed,  from  being  exhausted ;  nay,  more, 
which  in  time  to  come  will  bring  to  light  developments 
in  knowledge  and  in  life  that  as  yet  we  can  scarcely 
conjecture.' 

This  is  especially  the  case  in  regard  to  the  escha- 


56        Judaism  looked  forward  to  the  fiiture ;    [lect. 

tological  portions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ; 
and  indeed  generally  in  regard  to  the  whole  question 
of  the  interpretation  of  the  Prophetic  language  of 
Scripture,  and,  as  throwing  light  upon  this,  the  re- 
lation to  it  of  actual  subsequent  History.  There  are 
not  wanting  signs  that  the  questions  connected  with 
subjects  of  this  kind,  the  heart-searchings  and  diffi- 
culties that  arise  as  to  what  the  Christian  Religion 
really  means  and  has  to  say  as  to  the  present  condition 
and  as  to  the  destiny  in  the  great  hereafter  of  vast 
multitudes  of  the  human  race,  both  within  and  without 
the  local  pale  of  Christendom,  have  become  already  so 
practical  and  pressing  as  to  compel  the  Church  of  God 
to  face  them,  and  to  say,  when  many  and  various 
minds  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  them,  what 
thoughts  the  Word  of  God  warrants  us  in  entertaining 
as  to  the  hopes  and  possibilities  of  the  future,  and, 
even  better  still,  what  new  present  duties  may  mani- 
festly lie  before  herself. 

34.  Judaism  of  old  exhibited  the  most  surprising 
vitality,  and  survived  the  extremest  changes  of  con- 
dition, because  it  was  a  forward-looking  rehgion.  Its 
golden  age  was  ever  in  the  future.  Its  eye  was 
ever  watching  for  Him  Wlio  ivas  to  come.  It  lived 
not  only  in  hope,  but  hy  hope.  What  its  inner  corpor- 
ate mind,  so  to  say,  as  a  whole  is  now,  in  its  present 
state  of  trance  and  suspended  animation,  God  only 
knows,  Who  for  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  hath  shut 
up  all  in  unhelief  that  He  might  have  mercy  upon  all. 
What  we  do  know  is,  that,  even  now,  the  Race  to  which 
the  gifts   and  calling  of  God   are   ivithout  rej^entance 


II.]  so  also  docs  Christianity.  57 

{itfxeTafxk\Y]Ta,  unaltered,  unrecalled,  on  His  part)  is  not 
dead,  hut  slee^eth,  with  veiled  eyes ;  and  that  some 
wondrous  future,  in  connection  with  some  great  acces- 
sion of  renewed  life  to  the  Church  at  large,  is  yet  in 
store  for  it.    (See  St.  Lulce  xxi.  24.    Bomans  xi.  25-32.) 

35.  And,  like  Judaism,  Christianity  can  live  only  as 
a  forward-looking  religion.  It  must  show  itself  in  each 
generation  equal  to  and  abreast  of  the  present,  the 
ever-changing  present,  as  it  keeps  emerging  from  the 
womb  of  time.  But  more,  it  must  convince  each  pre- 
sent generation  that  it  can  never  be  exhausted,  or 
superseded,  or  cast  aside  as  done  with.  It  must  show 
that,  so  far  from  that,  it  is  the  One,  the  One  true,  and 
absolute  religion,  the  Religion  of  Humanity ;  and  that 
it  carries  within  its  bosom  the  hopes  and  promises  of 
the  future  for  the  whole  human  Race.  It  must  show 
that  its  principles  and  organization  alone,  as  they  once 
did  successfully  in  the  Fifth  and  following  centuries, 
and  again  in  the  Ninth  and  Tenth,  can  again  carry  the 
worn-out  societies  of  a  long-standing  civilization  across 
the  catastrophic  changes  which,  as  in  centuries  gone 
by,  so  again  in  the  future,  may  overtake  the  world  of 
men  ;  or  can  preserve  alive  the  forces  which  may  re- 
constitute them  under  new  conditions.  It  will  be  a 
grander  and  more  difficult  service  for  the  Church  of 
Christ  than  any  she  has  been  called  to  in  tlie  past ;  by 
how  much  the  ruin  and  disruption  of  Nations  and 
Society  from  causes  developed  from  within  are  ever 
worse  than  those  inflicted  by  external  violence  and 
aggression,  which  often  have  carried  witliin  themselves 
the  means  of  their  own  repair.     This  Christianity  must 


58  Calvinism  is  not  Chris iiattiiy.  [lect. 

do  on  the  stage  of  History,  and  in  the  sphere  of  temporal 
things. 

But  farther  she  must  show  that  she  alone  has  the 
key  which  can  open  any  way  out  of  the  difficulties, 
speculative,  perhaps,  but  real,  as  affecting  the  pur- 
poses and  character  of  God,  which  occur  to  the  modern 
mind  on  the  subject  of  the  Everlasting  Future.  Cal- 
vinism, with  its  premature  and  unreal  completeness  of 
an_apparently  rcmrided,  logical  system,  had  its  answer 
for  these  questions,  its  remedy  for  these  difficulties  ; 
a  remedy  worse  than  the  disease,  an  answer  which 
only  raised  deeper  questions  than  it  solved.  Its  system 
led,  as  it  could  only  lead,  those  who  were  trained  in  it, 
if  they  reflected  upon  it  at  all  and  did  not  shut  their 
eyes  to  it,  to  a  denial  of  the  very  existence  of  Him 
Whom  it  misrepresented  and  caricatured.  But  Cal- 
vinism, as  a  religious  force,  is  dead.  Thoughtful  be- 
lievers who  have  been  associated  with  its  outward 
forms  and  confessions  of  doctrine,  must,  if  they  remain 
believers,  exchange  its  narrow  trammels  and  reject  its 
intolerable  conclusions  for  the  healthier  and  diviner 
atmosphere,  the  largior  et  jjurior  aether,  of  a  Faith  more 
Catholic  and  true,  more  worthy  of  God  and  Man. 

36.  The  thought  of  Christ's  Heir-ship,  as  the  Only 
Son  of  God,  has  carried  us  on  to  the  thought  of  the 
ultimate  consummated  glory  of  that  vast  realm  of 
created  Life  which  is  to  be  His  Heritage.  We  are 
now  more  particularly  concerned  with  the  Bible  Reve- 
lation of  His  functions  towards  Creation  whereby, 
through  the  instrumental  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  Life  and  Light,  the  progress  of  Creation  towards 


II.]       The  Son  of  God  is  the  Light  of  the  World.        59 

that  final  destiny  is  being  slowly  evolved.  We  have 
dwelt  already  (in  Lecture  L)  on  the  Mediatorial  cha- 
racter of  the  Son  of  God,  the  One  Mediator,  as  the 
Means  wherethrough  all  Existence  and  Life  have 
passed  from  the  Father  to  the  finite  and  dependent 
forms  of  being.  We  must  now  consider  Him  as  the 
Medium  of  Light  and  Knoidedge,  and  especially  of 
spiritual  Knowledge ;  as  the  Bevealer,  and  especially  as 
the  Kevealer  of  God,  the  Knowledge  of  Whom  is  the 
highest  endowment  of  the  Creature,  to  all  his  intel- 
ligent and  rational  creatures,  angelic  as  well  as  human. 
(See  Ajjpendix,  Note  1). 

It  is  as  He  is  the  Logos,  the  Thought,  the  Reason, 
the  Wisdom,  and,  further,  the  Speech,  of  God  that  this 
function  belongs  to  the  Son  of  God ;  as  He  is  the  true, 
the  Eternal,  Light  from  Light,  Which  tvas,  and  Wliich, 
coming  into  the  ivorld,  lighteth  every  man. 

Compare  Prof.  Westcott  (in  the  Speaker's  Commentary) 
on  St.  John  i.  9.  He  connects  kpyJ)\xiLVov  ets  rov  Koafxov 
(coming  into  the  worliV)  with  to  cfym  {the  L/ffht'),  not 
with  TTOLVTa  avOptairov  {ever?/  man),  and  says,  '  It  seems 
best  to  take  it  more  literally,  and  yet  more  generally, 
as  descrihiniT-  a  cominsj;'  which  was  proj^rcssive,  slowly 
accomplished,  combined  with  a  permanent  being,  so  that 
both  the  verb  [was]  and  the  participle  {coming)  have 
their  full  force,  and  do  not  form  a  periphrasis  for  an 
imperfect.  The  mission  of  John  was  one  and  definite; 
but  all  along  up  to  his  time  the  Light  of  which  he  came 
to  witness  continued  to  shine,  being  revealed  in  many 
parts  and  in  many  ways.  TJiere  tvas  the  Light,  the  true 
Light,  tvhich  lighteth  every  man;  that  Li^^-ht  was,  and  yet 
more  that  Light  was  coming  itito  the  toorhl.  The  same 
idea  of  a  constant,  continuous  coming  of  the  AVord  to 


6o  Intellectual Lightisonly  throughtheSonof  God.  [lect. 

men  is  found  in  vi.  '^'i,,  5°^  where  that  cometh  (o  Kora- 
Pa[vcov)  stands  in  marked  contrast  with  t//at  came  (6 
Kara^as,  vv.  51,  58).  Taken  in  relation  to  the  context, 
the  words  declare  that  men  were  not  left  alone  to  inter- 
pret the  manifestations  of  the  Light  in  the  Life  around 
them  and  in  them.  The  Lig-ht  from  whom  that  Life 
flows  made  Himself  known  more  directly.  From  the 
first  He  was  (so  to  speak)  on  His  way  to  the  world, 
advancing"  towards  the  Incarnation  by  preparatory  reve- 
lations. He  came  in  type  and  prophecy  and  judgment.' 
....  'The  latter  expression,  loldch  lighteth  every  man, 
describes  the  universal  extent  of  its  (the  Light's)  action. 
The  words  must  be  taken  simply  as  they  stand.  No  man 
is  wholly  destitute  of  the  illumination  of  "  the  Light." 
In  nature,  in  life,  and  conscience  it  makes  itself  felt  in 
various  degrees  to  all.'  And,  again,  on  '  lighteth  every 
man^  '  The  idea  is  distinct  from  that  of  "  all  men  "  (y.  7). 
The  relation  is  not  collective,  corporate,  as  it  is  here 
presented,  but  personal,  and  universal  while  personal. 
The  reality  of  this  relation  furnished  the  basis  for  the 
crowning  fact  of  the  Incarnation.  The  world  was  made 
for  this  re-gathering.' 

As  nothing  has  any  being  or  life  except  through  and 
in  the  Son  of  God,  so  no  rational  creature  has  any 
knowledge,  any  intellectual  perceptive  or  reasoning 
power,  except  also  through,  and  in,  and  from  Him ; 
such  intellectual  life  and  power  being  such  portion  of 
the  Life-giving  Spirit  of  Light  as  is  vouchsafed,  in 
infinite  varieties  of  degree  and  of  form,  to  each  creature 
according  to  its  God-given  capacity  of  receiving  it. 
This  gift  is  not  to  be  thought  of  as  restricted  to  only 
the  moral  and  spiritual  life  and  light  and  knowledge  of 
such  creatures  as,  in  heart  and  will  and  affection,  open 
themselves  towards  God  in  conscious  responsive  love ; 


II.]  Varying  relation  of  Intellect  to  Moral  Character.  6i 

but  also  as  covering  those  far  lower,  far  less  precious 
and  abiding,  manifestations  of  merely  rational  power 
which,  resting,  in  God's  wondrous  handy-work,  on  a 
physical  base,  and  closely  connected  with  the  healthy 
condition  of  physical  organs,  in  the  marvellous  complex 
constitution  of  Man,  are  yet  themselves  exquisite  in 
power  and  subtlety  and  beauty,  though  sometimes, 
alas !  morally  apart  from  God.  The  kinds  and  de- 
grees of  relation  between  the  moral  and  the  intellectual 
elements  in  man  are  almost  infinitely  various.  They 
may  co-exist  in  a  high  perfection  of  each,  in  an  Origen, 
an  Athanasius,  a  Basil,  a  Leo,  an  Augustine,  an  Anselm, 
an  Aquinas,  a  Butler ;  or  the  moral  and  spiritual  ele- 
ments, in  a  very  high  development  of  earnestly  re- 
ligious and  conscientious  life,  may  co-exist  with  but 
moderate  intellectual  power ;  or,  again,  purely  intel- 
lectual gifts  of  the  very  highest  kind,  imaginative, 
speculative,  or  practical,  may  be  strangely  accompanied 
by  an,  apparently,  almost  total  absence  of  moral  sen- 
sibility and  conscience,  and  be  not  inconsistent,  as  in  a 
Napoleon,  with  a  character  utterly  base,  self-centred, 
and  contemptible.  The  co-existence  of  great  intel- 
lectual powers  with  low  moral  stature  is  more  possible 
and  more  frequent  than  the  co-existence  of  high  moral 
character  with  low  intellect.  And  the  reason  is,  that 
merely  intellectual  power  is  essentially  of  a  lower  kind 
in  the  scale  of  life  than  moral  and  spiritual  power.  It 
lies  nearer  to  the  physical  and  material  bases  of  life, 
and  so  varies  with  their  condition  and  force.  It  does 
not  necessarily  presuppose,  though  it  ought  to  subserve, 
the  high  development  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  ele- 


62  spiritual  lUuviination  is  vouchsafed       [lect. 

ment  in  human  nature.  Contrariwise,  any  considerable 
growth  of  moral  and  spiritual  character  does  presup- 
pose, as  its  necessary  antecedent  condition,  a  fair 
strength  of  the  intellectual  element  also  ;  and,  in  turn, 
contributes  to  it.  But  even  in  the  possible  and  actual 
separation  of  high  gifts  of  intellect  and  genius  from  real 
moral  goodness,  nay,  even  in  their  actual  association 
with  moral  meanness  and  badness,  we  claim  them  all 
as  manifestations  of  the  energy,  as  forms,  if  lower 
forms,  of  the  working,  of  Him  Who  is  the  only  Light 
of  the  world,  the  Eternal  Logos  of  God. 

The  human  intellect  is  part  of  that  Image  of  God 
wherein  Man  was  created.  It  is  the  finite  counterpart 
and  miniature  of  the  Intellect  of  God.  Within  its 
limited  range  of  subjects  and  of  pow-ers  it  works  accord- 
ing to  the  same  laws ;  and  so — I  speak  now  of  that 
action  of  the  lumen  siccum  of  the  pure  intellect  on 
abstract  subjects,  of  which  we  may  take  Mathematics 
as  the  type — it  works  certainly  and  truly,  and  with 
absolute  assent-compelling  force.  Hence,  in  the  natural 
sphere,  in  the  realm  of  material  nature,  it  is  the  proper 
and  legitimate  organ  of  truth. 

37.  But  if  we  claim  the  creature's  knowledge  of 
truth  in  the  lower  departments  of  Nature  and  Creation 
as  the  result  of  the  working  of  Him  Who  is  the  Reason 
of  God  on  and  in  finite  intelligences  created  in  His 
Image,  much  more  do  we,  necessarily,  assign  to  the 
same  only  Source  of  Light  and  Illumination  the  higher 
knowledge  of  moral  and  religious  truth,  the  knowledge 
of  duty  and  of  God,  and  the  overpowering  motives,  con- 
trolling conduct,  which  are  involved  in  and  arise  out  of 


II.]  only  through  the  Son  of  God.  63 

such  knowledge.  'None  —  no  creature  —  hnoioeth  the 
Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  'whomsoever  the  Son  loilleth 
reveal  him.  The  Son  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life ;  no  one  cometh  unto  the  Father  hut  through  Him, 
This  great  truth  is  obscured  by  the  famihar  mistransla- 
tion of  our  Authorized  Version  no  man;  but  it  is  as 
true  of  the  highest  angelic  intelligences  as  of  Man.  No 
created  mind  has  immediate  and  independent  know- 
ledge of,  or  access  to,  the  great  source  of  Life.  All 
must  be  alike  indebted  for  whatever  measure  of  Light 
they  have,  whether  on  the  highest  or  lowest  subjects  of 
thouo-ht,  to  the  Mediation  of  the  Son  of  God. 

38.  We  have  Scriptural  warrant  for  distinguishing 
between  the  soul  and  the  spirit  of  man ;  and  therefore 
for  distinguishing  between  the  operation  of  the  Eternal 
Logos  on  the  one  and  on  the  other.  The  intellectual 
powers  in  man  are  to  be  classed  as  belonging  rather  to 
the  soul,  which  is  the  living  mass  of  natural  vital 
powers  intimately  associated  with  a  material  organism, 
and  clothed,  for  this  present  life,  in  a  grosser  robe  of 
flesh,  whereby  it  is  at  once  both  put  into  necessary  con- 
tact with  the  grosser  objects  of  this  lower  world,  and 
also  shielded,  for  needful  protection  as  for  needful  pro- 
bationary discipline  and  moral  exercise  of  faith,  from 
the  otherwise  overpowering  impact  of  ever-present 
spiritual  realities  with  which  it  is  closely  surrounded. 
The  crown  and  summit  of  this  living  mass  of  natural 
powers  in  man  is  the  sjjirit,  the  highest  element  in 
man's  nature,  that  wherein  he  is  most  like  God,  and 
whereby  he  most  specially  and  directly  aj^prehends 
God  and  the  realities  of  the  spiritual  world.     With 


64     Wcahtess  of  the  spiritual  element  in  Man.      [lect. 

this  are  intimately  connected  the  Will  and  Affections 
and  moral  nature  of  man  ;  so  connected  as  to  influence 
and  be  influenced  by  it.  This  is  the  weakest  element 
in  man,  in  his  merely  natural  condition  as  fallen  ;  so 
weak  as  to  seem,  in  some  cases,  wholly  latent  and 
dormant,  a  mere  capacity  rather  than  an  active  energy. 
This  weakness  is  a  consequence  of  the  fallen  moral 
condition  of  man,  whereby  material  and  sensible  objects 
appeal  to  him  with  overpowering,  it  may  be  with  ex- 
clusive, force,  through  his  lower  faculties  and  tendencies ; 
while  the  spiritual  faculty,  the  eye  of  faith,  is  left 
unexercised  until  it  becomes,  it  may  be,  wholly  be- 
numbed and  powerless,  as  does  any  other  power  or 
faculty  from  prolonged  entire  disuse.  Yet  is  it  always 
there  ;  for  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the  living  complex 
of  Man,  without  which  he  were  not  truly  man. 

39.  The  human  spirit,  being  that  constituent  of  man 
which  is  most  Hke  the  nature  of  God,  Who,  and  Who 
alone,  is  essentially  and  merely  Spirit,  is  that  wherein 
the  Spirit  of  God,  working  through  the  Eternal  Son, 
most  directly  acts  ;  and  by  His  action  on  which  He 
enables  man  to  apprehend  God,  and  to  hold  communion 
with  Him.  It  is  also  that  from  which,  because  of  the 
intimate  dependence  of  its  action  and  condition  on  the 
moral  will  in  man,  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  soonest 
necessarily  withdraws  Himself,  when,  and  for  so  long 
as,  through  the  perverting  influence  of  temptation, 
internal  or  external,  the  moral  will  averts  itself  from 
God  in  disobedience.  The  consequences  of  this  with- 
drawal, which  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
consciousness  and  wilfulness  in,  and  of  continued  per- 


II.]    Effects  of  the  Withdrawal  of  the  Holy  spirit.     65 

sistent  adhesion  to,  the  act  of  disobedience,  are  a  pro- 
portionate dulling  of  the  spiritual  perceptiveness  and  a 
weakening  of  the  faculty  of  apprehending  God.  Those 
consequences  may,  conceivably,  amount,  in  the  end, 
•when  the  will  has  finally  and  decisively  rejected  God, 
to  the  total  and  irrecoverable  extinction  and  loss  of  all 
moral  and  spiritual  capacity  ;  sealing  the  creature's  final 
alienation  from  God  in  the  highest  and  noblest  element 
of  its  indestructible  being  ;  yet  leaving  stiU,  it  may  be, 
the  merely  reasoning  and  speculative  intellectual  powers 
untouched.  For  these  are  rooted  in  and  depend  for 
their  action  upon  the  lower  life,  the  more  material  ele- 
ments of  the  human  constitution ;  they  draw  their 
stimulus  and  their  jpabulum  originally  from  the  objects 
of  the  natural  creation,  apprehended  through  the  organs 
and  powers  of  sensation ;  and  they  are,  in  their  opera- 
tion upon  such  object-matter,  wholly  independent  of  the 
moral  condition,  of  the  affections  and  the  will. 

Yet  even  as  conceived  of  in  this  condition,  in  fallen 
angel  or  in  sinful  man ;  and  in  man  in  whatever  con- 
dition of  being,  in  the  flesh,  in  the  temporary  disem- 
bodied state,  or  in  the  final  state  after  the  Kesurrection; 
the  yet  remaining  merely  intellectual  energies  and  life  of 
rational  creatures,  even  in  their  moral  estrangement  from 
the  Creator,  are  still  due  to  the  operation  within  them 
of  the  Spirit  of  Life  and  Light,  Which  proceedeth  from 
the  Father,  given  through  the  Son,  and,  in  Him,  still 
sustaining  their  being.  And  in  the  cases  of  the  finally 
lost,  although  the  perverse  will  of  the  creature  has 
caused  it  to  fail  in  attaining  the  end  of  its  being  in 
full  conscious  union  through  its  spirit  with  God,  it  may 

F 


66    The  continued  life,  even  of  the  lost,  is  of  God.  [lect. 

yet  well  be  that  such  lower  life  as  is  possible  for  it, 
in  its  material  and  intellectual  elements,  (being  evolved 
and  working,  as  indeed  it  must  work  if  it  exist  at  all, 
in  the  strictest  conformity  to  the  laws  impressed  on 
Creation  as  the  expression  of  the  Creator's  highest 
wisdom  and  power)  may  be,  nay  must  be,  a  real  mani- 
festation of  the  Divine  Life  and  power.  As  such  it 
must  be  perfect  in  its  kind,  and  so  redound  to  the 
glory  of  God ;  however,  under  the  actual  conditions 
into  which  sin  has  brought  its  unhappy  subject,  and 
disconnected  by  the  rebellious  will  from  that  which 
should  have  been  the  crowning  glory  and  blessing  of 
the  perfect  hfe,  it  does  but  minister  to  the  suffering 
and  punishment  of  the  creature.  This  it  does  by  no 
arbitrary  enactment  (so  to  speak),  which  might  con- 
ceivably have  been  otherwise,  but  by  way  of  inevitable 
and  necessary,  i.  e.  natural,  consequence ;  consequence 
which  has  its  unalterable  roots  in  that  very  essential 
Being  and  Nature  and  Character  of  God  whereby  He 
is  that  He  is,  and  that  unchangeably,  and  whereby  He 
is,  and  must  be,  a  Law  unto  Himself  in  Will  and  in 
Action,  and  so  a  Law  unto  all  else  that  is.  In  some 
such  sense  as  this,  in  the  final  and  unalterable  state, 
when  the  economic  Kingdom  of  the  Son  shall  have 
been  laid  down  upon  the  subjection  of  all  things  to 
Him,  when  all  active  power  of  evil  and  rebellious 
opposition  to  God  and  to  His  Son  and  Spirit  shall  have 
been  broken  and  quenched  for  ever,  it  may  be  that, 
even  in  the  lost,  God  shall  be  all  in  all.     {See  §  52.) 

40.  From   His   universal   ministration   of  Life   and 
Light,   we    pass   on    to   consider   another   mediatorial 


IT.]         The  Priesthood  of  the  Only-Begotten  Son.        67 

function  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  one  with  which  the 
notion  of  Mediation  is  usually  more  closely  connected,  tlie 
Function  of  Priesthood.  This  also  we  must  contemplate 
as  it  assumes  a  wider  range  than  merely  the  making 
reconciliation  for  the  sins  of  men ;  and,  again,  as  in- 
cluding in  its  operation  not  men  only  but  the  Holy 
Angels  also.  We  must  consider  the  Eternal  Son  as 
the  One  acceptable  Presenter  of  the  worship  of  all 
that  lives,  through  Whom,  and  through  Whom  alone, 
it  does,  or  could,  pass  upward  with  acceptance  to  the 
Father.  This  is  true,  while,  at  the  same  time,  He  is, 
with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Object  of 
Worship,  and  of  Him  as  the  Only-Begotten  it  is  espe- 
cially said,  Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worslii/p  Him. 
His  sole  acceptable  presentation  of  the  worship  of  the 
Creature  pointedly  excludes  the  thought  of  Him  as 
part  of  Creation.  It  is  because  He  is  Uncreated  and 
Divine,  the  '  Venerandus,  verus  et  Unicus  Filins  '  {'  the 
honourable,  true  and  Only  Son')  of  the  Eternal  Father  ; 
and  because,  as  such,  His  Knowledge  and  Love  of  the 
Father  are  alone  adequate,  because  infinite  ;  that  all 
worship,  the  very  inner  essence  of  which  is  love,  must, 
necessarily,  go  up  through  Him,  in  Whom  alone  the 
Father  is  absolutely  and  perfectly  tvell-pleased,  since 
He  alone  can  love  the  Father  as  He  is  worthy  to  be 
loved.  Herein  lies  the  moral,  and  the  sufficient,  reason 
of  the  Sole  Acceptable  Priesthood  of  the  Eternal  Son. 
Hence  in  this  sense  also  of  loving,  longing,  worship 
None  cometli  unto  the  Father  hut  through  Him.  It  is 
His  sole  and  inalienable  prerogative  as  the  Only-Be- 
gotten, the  First-born,  the  Only-Born,  the  Well-Beloved, 

F  2 


68  The  essence  of  Worship  is  Self-Sacrifice.     [lect. 

to  be  the  One  and  only  High-Priest  of  Creation,  the 
One  Mediator,  at  once  of  every  good  and  perfect  gft  of 
blessing  and  of  grace  from  the  Father  of  Lights  to  each 
and  all,  and  of  the  due  return  of  homage  and  of  worship 
to  the  Father  of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and 
earth  is  named. 

41.  For  Worship,  that  i«,  Sacrifice,  Self-Sacrifice, 
absolute  self-surrender  without  reserve  of  the  whole 
being  as  a  whole-burnt-offering  kindled  by  the  fire  of 
love,  which  God  Himself,  through  His  Spirit  given 
through  His  Son,  has  lighted  within,  on  the  altar  of 
the  heart — this  is  the  first,  the  supreme,  duty,  the  one 
all-inclusive  duty,  of  every  creature  of  God's  hand. 
Work  and  Service  and  Obedience  come  next ;  but  they 
come  as  wrapped  up  in,  as  part  of,  as  consecrated  by, 
Worship,  that  is,  by  Sacrifice.  And  this  entirely  apart 
from  Sin  and  Expiation ;  for  it  is  inherent  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  creaturely  relation ;  which  is  essentially 
dependent,  and  bound,  in  its  first  and  every  thought  and 
conscious  movement,  to  acknowledge  itself  so. 

The  restriction  of  the  thought  of  worship  to  human 
worship  only ;  the  restriction  of  the  conception  of 
Sacrifice  to  expiatory  sacrifice  only  as  ofiered  on  behalf 
of  sinful  men ;  the  loss  of  the  thought  that  Sacrifice, 
in  its  essential  and  permanent  central  idea,  is,  (quite 
apart  from  and  anterior  to  any  idea  of  sin,)  the  very 
inner  reality  of  all  worship  towards  God  on  the  part 
of  every  creature,  even  the  very  highest  and  holiest, 
and  that  for  the  Presentation  of  that  Sacrifice  the 
intervention  of  a  Divine  Priest  is  needed  in  order  to 
make  it   either  possible  or  acceptable ;    have   greatly 


II.]  Expiation  7iecessitated  by  Sin.  69 

lowered  and  damaged  and  narrowed  our  conceptions 
of  worship  as  the  supreme  duty  of  the  Creature  ;  even 
as  the  restriction  of  the  thought  of  Mediatorship  and 
Sacrifice  to  the  gracious  intervention  of  the  Eternal 
Son  on  behalf  of  fallen  and  sinful  man  has  narrowed 
and  thrown  out  of  its  proper  proportion  our  thought 
of  the  dignity  and  glory  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  grandeur 
of  His  Work. 

Sin,  of  course,  brings  in  another  element  into  Wor- 
ship and  Sacrifice.  Sin  creates  a  gulf  between  the 
creature  and  God ;  and  only  a  Mediator,  a  Priest,  can 
bring  the  creature  back  again  to  God  even  when  it 
wills  to  be  brought ;  or  can  make  atonement  and  satis- 
faction on  its  behalf  for  the  injury  and  wrong  done  to 
the  Majesty  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver  by  an  act  of 
disobedience.  There  is  a  new  need,  that  of  expiation; 
and  there  is  a  greater  and  to  us  more  evident  need  of 
a  Mediator. 

But  the  standing  truth,  that,  from  the  first  instant 
of  Creation  there  has  been  a  Mediator  between  the 
Father  and  Creation,  One  through  Whom,  necessarily. 
Creation  came  into  being,  renders  it  easier  for  us  to 
apprehend  alike  the  necessity,  and  (such  is  the  love 
of  God)  the  probability,  of  an  Atoning  Mediator  who 
should  undo  the  mischief  of  sin ;  and,  this  being  so, 
the  impossibility  that  it  can  be  any  other  than  the 
Uncreated  Mediator,  through  Whom  and  for  Whom 
were  all  things  made,  the  Eternal  Son. 

But  our  immediate  thought  is  of  Ilim,  the  Beloved, 
the  WpwTOTOKo^;  7rd(Tt]<;  KTia-eo)^,  as  yielding  back  to  the 
Father  and  offering  up,  with  the  infinite  acceptableness 


70        Worship  must  be  offered  through  the  Son.     [lect, 

of  His  own  supreme  and  divine  and  sole  adequate  wor- 
thiness, the  sacrifice,  finite,  yet  complete  in  that  it  was 
all  that  each  had  to  give,  of  the  self-devoting  worship 
of  unfallen  angels  and  man.  Even  of  such  none  could 
approach  the  Father  but  by  Him.  He  is  the  Way,  as 
well  as  the  Truth  and  the  Life,  for  all ;  the  link  between, 
the  medium  of  communication  both  ways,  to  and  from, 
between  the  Creator  and  the  created  universe,  by  His 
ofiice  and  function  as  the  Son,  the  Image,  the  Word, 
the  Keason,  the  Wisdom,  of  the  Father ;  and  this  He 
was  even  before,  in  the  fulness  of  the  time,  He  became 
such,  in  an  unspeakably  closer  and  more  intimate 
sense,  in  our  Nature,  as  the  Man  Christ  Jesus. 

The  Sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  and  ador- 
ation which  is  due  to  the  Almighty  from  His  rational 
creatures  could  not,  of  itself,  even  considered  collectively, 
and  accompanied  by  the  fullest  loving  self-surrender  of 
each  and  all,  be  adequate,  because  necessarily  finite. 
But,  ascending  to  Him  through  the  Son  of  His  love, 
in  Whom  He  is  always  well-pleased,  and  seen  in  Him, 
it  becomes  so.  It  needed  no  expiation,  no  washing  in 
the  Blood ;  but  it  needed  completeness  and  perfection. 
These  only  the  Infinite  Co-Equal  Son  covdd  give ;  and 
so  we  cannot  but  believe  that  the  conscious  worship  of 
the  angel  host  in  Heaven,  if  not  of  unfallen  man  in 
Paradise,  was  necessarily  and  consciously  ofiered  through 
the  understood  and  realized  Mediatorship  and  Priest- 
hood of  the  Eternal  Son. 

If  this  is  not  expressly  revealed,  it  is  not  revealed, 
partly  because  it  follows  necessarily,  on  reflection,  from 
truths  which  are  revealed  ;   such  as  that  None  cometh 


II.]     Connection  of  Priesthood  with  PrimogetiitMre.      71 

unto  tlie  Father  hut  through  Him  ;  and  partly  because 
the  Bible  is,  primarily  and  most  importantly,  the  history 
of  the  Redemption  of  Mankind  from  Sin . 

42.  In  the  early  beginnings  of  human  history  and 
under  the  earliest  Dispensations  Priesthood  was  con- 
nected with  Primogeniture.  The  firstborn  was  the  Priest. 
This  primeval  ordinance  was  the  earthly  and  human 
reflection  of  the  Divine  prerogative  of  the  Son  of  God  ; 
and  so  may  be  taken  to  be  of  itself  suggestive  and 
illustrative  of  a  mysterious  fact  in  the  Divine  Nature 
and  in  the  relation  of  the  Divine  Persons  to  each 
other ;  not  indeed  necessarily,  as  they  are  related  to 
each  other  in  their  absolute  Being,  but  as  they  together, 
and  regarded  in  their  Unity,  are  related  to  created  exist- 
ence. We  have  another  example  of  this  reflex  illustration 
of  the  Divine  from  the  Human  Nature,  the  possibility 
of  which  arises  out  of  Man's  creation  in  the  image,  after 
the  likeness,  of  God,  in  the  noteworthy  Divine  utterance 
concerning  Man,  and  one  uttered  before  that  image  and 
likeness  had  been  injured  or  defaced,  It  is  not  good  for 
man  to  he  alone.  This  saying  indicates  the  existence 
of  a  corresponding  mysterious  necessity,  on  an  infinite 
scale,  in  the  Divine  Nature,  and  that  not  in  His  related 
but  in  His  Absolute  and  Essential  Existence,  a  necessity 
of  Social  Companionship  ;  and  so  points  directly  to  a 
Plurality  of  Persons  in  the  Divine  Essence  ;  for  the  idea 
of  companionship  is  only  realized  between  Persons,  and 
equal  Persons.  Nay  further,  bearing  in  mind  the  fore- 
seen Incarnation  of  God,  as  viewed  by  Him  to  Whom 
past,  present,  and  future  are  one,  it  might,  perhaps, 
even  be  said,  that  the  outward  visible  form  and  frame 


72    Priestly  relation  of  the  Son  to  all  Creation,    [lect. 

of  Man  was  also  part  of  bis  creation  in  the  eternally 
conceived  and  predestined  Image  of  Him  Who  was,  in 
the  fulness  of  time,  and  to  human  apprehension,  Him- 
self to  become  Man  in  actual  outer  historic  fact. 

An  interesting  and  curious  account  of  some  crude  cari- 
catures and  exag-gerations  of  this  thoug-ht,  in  relation  to 
the  complete  humanity  of  Christ  in  body  and  soul,  is 
given  in  Dorner's  Person  of  Christ  (J)\\ .  ii.  vol.  ii.  chap.  ii. 
p.  325).  He  traces  them  from  their  rise  in  the  Lutheran 
and  Reformed  Churches,  'as  the  17th  century  drew  to 
a  close.'  through  the  Quakers  (Barclay),  the  Anabaptists 
(Hoffmann  and  Menno  Siraonis),  P.  Poiret,  and  several 
English  writers  down  to  Dr.  Isaac  Watts. 

Thus  the  Priesthood  of  the  Firstborn,  of  the  Head 
of  the  Family,  in  the  earliest  human  society,  his  func- 
tion as  the  depositary  and  guardian  and  transmitter  of 
primeval  truth  about  God  and  the  presenter  of  worship 
to  God,  seem  to  point  to  an  analogous  function,  on  a 
scale  of  infinite  grandeur,  belonging  to  the  Son  of  God, 
the  YlpwTOTOKo^  Trdcrrj?  KTiaecDg  {TJie  Firstbom  before  all 
creation) ;  a  function  to  be  fully  manifested  in  the 
Incarnation,  whereby  He  actually  became  a  part  of, 
and  the  Head  of,  that  Creation  which  He  summed  up 
and  represented. 

43.  That  event,  in  itself  and  in  its  consequences,  espe- 
cially in  its  sacramental  extension,  brought  the  One 
Mediator  into  the  closest  possible  connection  with 
human  nature  ;  and,  in  and  through  it,  with  that  lower 
material  creation  at  the  head  of  which  Man  stands. 
But  His  Priestly  relation  to  Creation  at  large  and  to 
Man  as  part  of  it  does  not  depend  on,  though  it  is 
consummated  and  perfectly  manifested  in,  His  actual 


II.]  even  before  His  Incarnation.  73 

Incarnation.  By  His  Firstborn  Sonship,  and  by  the 
Mediatorial  Character  which  belongs  to  Him  as  the 
Agent  of  Creation,  He  is  essentially  not  only  the 
Medium  of  Light  and  Knowledge,  as  of  Life  and  joy 
and  blessing  and  grace,  to  all  orders  of  intelligent 
beings  from  the  highest,  but  also  the  High  Priest  of 
their  Worship,  the  Presenter  of  their  homage,  the 
Offerer  of  their  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
in  Whom  alone  and  through  Whom  alone,  associated 
with  the  infinite  merit  and  perfect  well-pleasingness 
which  belongs  to  Him  as  the  Perfect  Son,  the  worship 
of  the  heavenly  host  has  ever  ascended  with  acceptance 
to  the  Father.  Ere  sin  entered  into  God's  fair  universe, 
and  while  as  yet  was  no  estrangement  between  Him 
and  any  of  His  creatures,  and  so  no  need  as  yet  of 
atonement  and  reconciliation,  there  w^as,  for  all  this, 
need  of  One  Who  should  stand  between  the  Uncreated 
and  the  created  Life  ;  One  Who,  Himself  Uncreated, 
and  Divine,  could  yet  enter  into  relation  with  created 
Life  as  existing  through,  in,  and  for  Him  ;  One  in 
Whom  the  creature  could  see,  and  through  Whom  the 
creature  could  know,  as  much  as  its  capacity,  in  each 
individual  case,  could  bear  and  contain  of  God,  Whom, 
immediately,  l^one  hath  seen  or  can  see  ;  One  in  Whom 
and  through  Whom  the  Father  could  look  with  satis- 
faction and  complacency  upon  His  own  Creation ; 
which,  however  inconceivably  grand  and  glorious,  in 
kind  and  quality,  or  in  scale  and  magnitude  of  forces 
and  of  extent,  must  be  essentially  finite,  at  least  in 
quality  and  degree,  and  so  at  an  infinite  distance  be- 
neath the  Perfections  and  the  Majesty  of  God.     Thus 


74  The  2inscen  Angelic  world.  [lect 

it  needed  its  association  with  the  Divine  Son,  through 
Whom  it  came  into  existence,  in  Whom  it  continued  to 
exist ;  and  Who  must  be  in  it,  if  either  it  were  to  be 
worthy  of  the  Divine  approval  and  a  worthy  object  on 
which  God's  love  should  rest,  or  its  conscious  worship 
and  adoration  and  love,  the  first  and  highest  duty  of 
every  creature  capable  of  them,  were  to  come  up  with 
acceptance  before  Him,  relieved  of  that  necessary  imper- 
fection and  insufficiency  which  must  always  cleave  to 
the  best  efforts  of  even  the  highest  and  purest  of  God's 
creatures  and  children. 

Him  the  Only-Begotten,  of  Whom  it  is  said.  Let  all 
the  angels  of  God  worship  Him,  all,  save  the  rebellious 
angels,  have  ever  acknowledged  in  His  threefold  func- 
tion ;  as  the  Sovereign  Lord  of  the  Divine  Kingdom 
and  Ruler  of  all ;  as  the  Prophet  and  the  Eevealer,  in 
that  all  they  know  of  God  they  know  through  Him  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  Who  is  in  them  through  Him ;  and 
as  the  One  Priest,  in  that  they  approach  not  God  in  loving 
worship,  save  in  and  through  Him.  And  in  and  through 
Him,  the  Beloved,  they  have  ever  enjoyed  an  acceptable 
access  to,  and  a  blessed  communion  with,  the  Father 
of  Spirits  ;  they  have  ever  enjoyed,  as  through  the 
same  Mediation,  a  continual  influx  of  grace  from  Him. 

44.  The  Sadducees  of  old,  the  rationalists  of  their 
day,  believed  in  neither  angel  nor  spirit.  But  the 
Church  of  God,  in  all  its  stages  and  through  all  its 
successive  dispensations,  has  ever  confessed  both.  God's 
human  children  (among  whom  primeval  truth,  contin- 
ually reinforced  as  it  has  been  and  enlarged  by  fresh 
revelations,  has  ever  been  earnestly  and  joyfully  em- 


II  ]  God  alone  is  piwe  Spirit.  75 

braced  and  cherished)  have  always  beUeved  that  above 
themselves  in  the  scale  of  God's  Creation,  though  not 
more  than  themselves  the  objects  of  His  Fatherly  love 
and  care,  there  is,  in  the  unseen  spiritual  world,  which 
is  ever  around  us,  though  at  present  veiled  from  our 
eyes  by  our  tabernacles  of  flesh,  a  glorious  hierarchy 
of  Angels  and  Archangels,  of  Thrones  and  Dominions^ 
Principalities  and  Foivers,  greater,  in  what  ways  and 
degrees  we  know  not,  than  human  beings  in  j^ower 
and  mi  gilt.     (2  Pet.  ii.  11). 

Though  often  spoken  of  as  spirits,  we  are  not  to 
suppose  that  the  angels  are  merely  and  purely 
spiritual  in  the  strict  and  proper  sense  of  the  term. 
To  be  mere  Spirit,  to  exist  in  an  absolute  inde- 
pendence of  space  and  time,  to  be  Incomprehensible 
.(immensus)  and  Eternal,  is  the  sole  prerogative  of  the 
Self-Existent  Beinof.  This  truth  has  been  unfortu- 
nately  obscured  by  the  misrendering  of  our  Authorized 
Version,  not  corrected  in  the  Westminster  Eevision, 
of  Uvevfxa  6  Geo?  by  God  is  a  S])irit,  instead  of  by  God 
is  Spirit.  For  to  say  '  God  is  a  Spirit,'  seems  to  repre- 
sent Him  as  one  in  a  class  of  existences  which  may  be 
we  know  not  how  larire  ;  whereas  His  Existence  in  all 
its  Modes  and  Attributes  is  singidar  and  unique.  To 
say  '  God  is  a  Spirit,'  sets  the  Divine  and  angelic 
natures,  alike  unseen  by  us  but  not  alike  unseeable, 
in  a  rank  by  themselves.  It  draws  the  line  below 
them  ;  and  then,  below  that  line,  begins  to  think  and 
speak  of  human  nature.  However  natural  it  be  thus 
to  draw  the  line  in  common  language  at  the  line  of 
sight,  it  is  yet  misleading.     The  true  line,  one  cannot 


76       All  created  life  is  associated  with  Matter,     [lect. 

doubt,  is  that  whicli  necessarily  exists  between  Un- 
created and  Infinite  and  Absolute  Existence  and  all 
that  is  created  and  finite.  The  former  is,  in  Itself, 
wholly  apart  from  matter ;  and  existed,  in  and  from 
eternity  a  jparte  ante,  before  matter  was.  The  latter 
would  seem,  alike  from  the  hints  and  suggestions  of 
Holy  Scripture,  and  from  various  philosophical  con- 
siderations, to  be  necessarily  connected,  though  (it 
may  be)  in  infinitely  various  ways,  with  matter,  of  (it 
may  be)  infinitely  various  degrees  of  materiality.  We 
must  remember,  what  is  obviously  true  as  soon  as 
thought  of,  that  the  air  in  an  empty  room  (to  take  this 
as  an  illustration)  is  as  strictly  material  as  are  its  walls 
and  its  floor ;  and  that,  still  within  the  limits  of  the 
strictly  material,  there  may  be  we  cannot  limit  what 
further  advances  in  the  direction  of  greater  subtlety  and 
ethereality,  the  material  being  simply  relative  to  the 
acuteness  of  sense  in  the  percipient.  Physical  Science 
abounds  with  illustrations  of  the  way  in  which  subtle 
forms  of  matter,  often  wholly  imperceptible  in  them- 
selves by  our  ordinary  senses,  permeate  grosser  forms, 
which  cannot  resist  their  passage  and  their  influence  ; 
and,  furthers  of  the  fact  that  the  mightiest  forces  of 
Physical  Nature,  Electricity,  for  example,  are  associated 
with  and  embodied  (if  we  may  use  the  term)  in  the 
subtlest  forms  of  matter.  Extending  in  this  way  our 
conception  of  the  material,  and  remembering  that  what- 
ever is  material  must  have  outward  form  and  local 
circumscription,  we  seem  compelled  to  believe  that  all 
forms,  even  the  highest,  of  created  life  are  necessarily 
associated  with,  defined  and  individualized  by,  a  mate- 


II.]  which  is  of  infinitely  various  degrees.  "jy 

rial  embodiment  or  envelope,  and  so  are  subject  to  the 
laws  of  space  as  of  time,  i.  e.  are  here  and  not  there, 
and  must  move,  with  a  movement  that  takes  time, 
from  one  point  to  another.  And  the  necessity  for  this 
individual  definition  becomes,  perhaps,  greater  in  the 
higher  forms  of  life,  in  which  it  is  associated  with 
reason  and  will  and  personality.  All  Science  points,  it 
has  been  said,  to  a  wonderful  continuity  in  Nature  and 
in  all  created  life  so  far  as  we  know  it.  We  may  well 
believe  that  such  continuity  still  largely  prevails  in  the 
unexplored  regions  where,  as  yet,  we  cannot  trace  it. 
Of  Man  it  is  said.  Thou  madest  him  a  little  loiver  than 
the  angels ;  and  to  Man,  redeemed  to  the  consummated 
perfection  of  his  nature,  which  shall  then  as  now  include 
a  body  though  a  spiritual  one,  it  has  been  promised 
by  the  Son  of  God  that  he  shall  be  equal  to  the  angels 
{St.  Luke  XX.  36),  and,  as  the  angels  of  God  in  Heaven 
{St.  Matt,  xxiii.  30).  It  is  not  then  difficult  for  us  to 
understand  that  the  superhuman  beings  of  the  unseen 
angelic  world  are,  even  to  the  very  highest,  not  mere 
spirit,  but  clothed  in  a  material  embodiment ;  and  that 
of  human  form,  for  so  Holy  Scripture  always  represents 
them,  though  unspeakably  excelling  in  beauty  and  in 
power.     {Ajyjyendix,  Note  2.) 

45.  Revelation  gives  us  no  account  of  the  first  cre- 
ation of  these  glorious  beings;  but  clearly  implies  their 
existence  anterior  to  that  of  Man.  Bishoj)  Bull  (Vol. 
I.  Sermon  XI.)  adopts  the  opinion,  which  he  says  was 
general  among  divines  of  his  day,  that '  the  angels  were 
created  some  time  within  the  six  days; '  but  the  grounds 
he  alleges  for  it  seem  very  insufficient.     Their  normal 


78  The  Angels  worship  of  God  [lect. 

dwelling-place  is  uniformly  spoken  of  in  the  Old  and 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  by  our  Lord  Himself,  as 
Heaven.  By  this  term,  used,  as  it  always  is  in  Holy 
Scripture,  in  contradistinction  to  Eartli,  we  must  under- 
stand the  place,  or  rather,  perhaps,  the  condition,  of 
God's  nearer  Presence  and  unimpeded  Self-manifesta- 
tion ;  such  portions,  that  is,  and  conditions  of  the 
Universe  and  of  created  life  as  have  not  been  over- 
shadowed by  the  dark  cloud  of  sin.  In  that  happier 
sphere  the  angels  do  always  behold  the  Face  of  our 
Father  Wliich  is  in  Heaven  (St.  Matt,  xviii.  lo).  To 
them  the  Universe  is  one  vast  Temple,  wherein  God 
dwells,  and  which  is  illumined  by  the  Shekinah-Glory 
of  His  Presence  manifested  in  His  Son.  Their  first 
duty,  their  highest  occupation,  their  chiefest  joy  and 
delight  is  the  adoring  worship  of  God.  Twice,  in 
wondrous  vision,  has  a  glimpse  of  their  worship  been 
vouchsafed  in  ecstatic  spiritual  trance,  to  human  eyes, 
and  the  sound  of  their  hymn  of  praise  been  heard  by 
human  ears ;  once  under  the  old  Dispensation  to  the 
great  evangelical  prophet ;  once  under  the  New  to  the 
beloved  disciple,  in  his  exile  for  his  testimony  to  his 
Lord.  With  that  worship  the  worship  of  man  redeemed 
in  and  by  the  Incarnate  Christ,  the  One  Mediator  and 
Head  of  angels  and  of  men,  has  in  the  Catholic  Church 
been  wondrously  made  one,  in  her  highest  act  of  Eu- 
charistic  Thanksgiving,  wherein,  throughout  all  lands 
and  through  all  her  centuries,  she  has  ever  joined 
*  with  angels  and  archangels,  and  with,  all  the  company 
of  Heaven,'  in  magnifying  God's  glorious  Name,  ever- 
more praising  Him  and  saying,  '  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord 


II.]  presupposes  a  Revelation  of  God  79 

God  of  Hosts,  Heaven  and  Earth  are  full  of  Thy  Glorv, 
Glory  be  to  Thee,  0  Lord  most  High.' 

This  worship  presupposes,  as  its  necessary  antecedent 
condition,  some  sight  of  God,  some  revelation  of  God  to 
the  angels,  some  knowledge,  and  that  we  can  hardly 
doubt,  notwithstanding  Hooker's  language  on  the  sub- 
ject, progressive,  perhaps  endlessly  progressive,  know- 
ledge of  God,  His  Nature,  His  Will,  His  Work,  His 
Ways,  and  of  their  own  relation  to  and  consequent 
duties  towards  Him.  For  on  this  knowledge  and  sight 
of  Him  their  worship  of  Him  is  founded.  We  cannot 
doubt  that  the  Medium  of  this  Revelation  of  God  to 
\\\Q  Holy  Ansfels  is  the  Eternal  Son,  the  Lofros,  the 
Revealer,  Who  is  their  Light  as  well  as  their  Life,  in 
that  through  Him,  standing  therefore  to  them  in  a 
most  truly  and  strictly  Mediatorial  relation,  there  is 
a  continual  inflowing  into  them,  into  their  minds  and 
spirits,  of  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself  of  God.  He,  the 
Third  Person  in  the  Most  Holy  Trinity,  is  the  quicken- 
ing Life  in  them,  freely  ministered  to  them,  according 
to  their  several  individual  capacity,  and  that  a  growing 
one,  through  the  Son  of  God. 

Hooker,  H.  P.  Book  I.  vi.  i,  writes,  '  In  the  matter  of 
knowledge  there  is  between  the  an'^-els  of  God  and  the 
children  of  men  tliis  difTerenee  :  angels  already  have  full 
and  complete  knowledge  in  ihe  h'ujhest  degree  ihal  can  he 
imparted  to  them  ;  men,  if  we  view  them  in  their  spring, 
are  at  the  first  without  understanding  or  knowledge  at 
all.  Nevertheless,  from  this  utter  vacuity  they  grow  by 
degrees,  till  they  come  at  length  to  be  even  as  the  angels 
themselves  are.'  The  words  italicised  seem  too  strong ; 
but   perhaps  Hooker  did   not    mean    them    to   be  taken 


8o  to  them  through  His  Son.  [lect. 

absolutely,  but  only  to  draw  a  contrast  between  the 
infantile  beg-innings  of  human  beings  and  the  (appa- 
rent) creation  of  angels  at  once  in  full  adult  perfection, 
not  of  knowledge,  but  of  powers  and  faculties. 

It  may  seem  a  mere  speculation,  but  is  it  not  a 
justifiable  and  a  probable  one  %  to  add,  that  to  the 
angels,  of  whom,  as  we  have  seen,  we  are  to  conceive 
as  clothed  with  spiritual  bodies  of  human  form,  may 
be  vouchsafed  the  sight  of  God  in  visible  form ;  and  if 
so,  of  course,  in  human  form,  and  that,  of  course,  asso- 
ciated with  the  Divine  Person  of  the  Eternal  Son,  in 
Whom  alone  can  any  created  being  see  God.  We 
know  that  it  was  part  of  God's  Purpose  and  Will 
to  assume,  wlien  ilie  fulness  of  the  time  was  come,  the 
actual  flesh  and  blood,  the  whole  nature,  of  Man ;  as 
well  as  that  outward  form  which,  in  varying  degrees 
of  glory  and  power  and  beauty,  is  common  to  men  and 
angels  :  and  so  no  marvel  if,  for  manifestation  to  them, 
He  should,  even  before  the  actual  Incarnation,  assume, 
whether  permanently  or  occasionally,  to  them  and  to 
their  apprehension,  a  visible  human  form  ;  even  as  in 
such  form  He,  on  occasion,  manifested  Himself  to  the 
Patriarchs  and  to  others  of  the  Old  Covenant. 

However  this  may  have  been,  it  was  in  the  Eternal 
Son,  Who  is  the  visible  Image  of  God,  that  they  saw  God, 
whether  inwardly  or  outwardly,  and  knew  God  in  His 
Glory  and  in  His  Beauty  and  in  His  moral  Attributes. 
In  His  visible  works  in  Creation  which  lay  outspread 
before  their  gaze,  and  whereof  they  were  part,  they  saw 
God  and  knew  Him  in  His  Wisdom  and  in  His  Power ; 
watching  with  absorbing  interest  the  slow  evolution  of 


II.]  Gradations  of  rank  in  the  Heavenly  Hierarchy.  8 1 

His  mighty  Plan,  desiring  to  look  into  it.  So  seeing 
God  and  knowing  Him,  they  loved  Him  and  they 
worshipped  Him.  But  they  worshipped  Him  through 
the  Son,  the  One  Mediator ;  He  their  High  Priest 
gathering  up  into  Himself  their  pure  and  holy,  yet 
of  itself,  because  creaturely,  finite  and  inadequate  love 
and  worship,  uniting  it  to  His  own  perfect  and  infinite 
Love  of  the  Father,  binding  it  to  His  own  absolute 
identity  of  Will  with  the  Father's,  and  so  giving  it 
a  worth  and  an  acceptability  which  in  itself  it  could 
never  attain  unto. 

46.  But  Worship  is  not  the  sole  element  and  occu- 
pation of  the  angels'  life.  Perfectly  they  do  God's 
Will,  which  is  their  one  Law,  revealed  to  them  through 
His  Son  their  King ;  and  this  in  Work  and  Service  as 
well  as  in  adoration  and  praise.  Of  what  nature  is  this 
work  and  service  %  Holy  Scripture  gives  only  general 
suggestive  hints  on  this  highly  interesting  subject: 
yet  its  intimations  are  sufiiciently  clear,  as  to  certain 
broad  lines,  to  furnish  trustworthy  material  for  our 
devout  meditation  on  a  topic  which  occupied  the  last 
thoughts  on  earth  of  Kichard  Hooker,  '  the  number  and 
nature  of  angels,  and  their  blessed  obedience  and  order.' 
{hife^  in  Kehles  Edition,  p.  85.)  There  are  evidently 
distinctions  of  rank  and  power,  and  probably  of  natural 
endowment,  among  them.  Their  general  name  of  An- 
gels, a  name  expressive  not  of  nature  but  of  ofiice  and 
function,  denotes  that  they  are  God's  messengers  or 
agents,  specially  towards  the  human  race ;  and  that 
both  of  mercy  and  of  judgement.  Above  the  angels 
in  general  are   the  Archangels ;   beings  evidently  of  a 

G 


82  Angels  employed,  in  subordination  to  the  Son,  [lect. 

higher  rank  and  place  to  whom  the  angels  are  subor- 
dinated. Some  distinctions  in  the  celestial  Hierarchy 
are  also  clearly  implied  in  the  special  designations 
Thrones,  Dominions,  Principalities,  and  Powers.  [E^h. 
i.  21  ;   Col.  i.  i6;    i  Pet.  iii.  22.) 

For  the  principle  of  a  graduated  subordmation, 
through  the  various  degrees  of  i^ovala  (delegated  au- 
thority) committed  to  various  ranks  of  intelligent 
beings,  evidently  runs  throughout  the  whole  adminis- 
tration of  the  Divine  Government  of  Him  Who  is  ever 
the  author,  not  aKaraa-raa-ia^  (of  confusion  and  unsettle- 
ment),  but  of  order  and  of  peace  (i  Cor.  xiv.  2,3)-  Is 
not  this  the  finite  counterpart  of  the  mysterious  Subor- 
dination of  the  Second  and  Third  Persons  of  the  Holy 
Trinity  within  the  Divine  Nature  Itself?  And  is  not 
the  one  safeguard  and  guarantee  of  its  due  and  orderly 
operation  the  willing  subjection  and  loyal  submission 
of  all,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  to  the  Supreme 
Divine  Authority  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  the 
angels'  King  ?  God  rules  the  Universe  through  His 
Son ;  the  Son  of  God  rules  through  His  subordinate 
agents,  angelic  and  human,  who  are  empowered  for 
their  work  and  duty,  under  Him  and  in  their  ordered 
subordination  one  to  another,  by  the  Spirit  Which  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  Father  and  is  given,  through  the  Son, 
to  them  accordinor  to  the  several  '  ofiSce  and  work '  of 
each.  (Compare  the  Formula  of  Ordination.)  But  the 
Son  of  God  is  Sovereign  over  all,  the  Object  of  Divine 
Worship  to  all.  This  supremest  rank  on  the  Father's 
Throne  belongs  to  Him,  First,  in  His  pre-existent  Divine 
Nature  {Heh.  i.  5,  &c.),  and  here  of  native  and  inherent 


II.]  in  the  Administration  of  the  Universe.  83 

right ;  and,  Secondly,  by  gift  and  bestowal,  in  His  Incar- 
nate Nature  also  (^t.  Matt,  xxviii.  1 8  ;  PhilijJj).  ii.  9.)  The 
angels  are  His  willing  servants.  Even  in  His  deepest 
humiliation  in  the  hour  of  the  poioer  of  darkness  it  was 
so.  In  Gethsemane  there  appeared  unto  Him  an  angel 
from  heaven  strengthening  Him  (St.  LuJce  xxii.  43).  This 
may  probably  be  understood  of  the  special  guardian 
angel  of  His  Holy  Humanity.  But  He  could  also  say 
to  St.  Peter  on  the  same  occasion,  Tliinl-est  thou  that  I 
cannot  now  ^7^ay  to  my  Father,  and  He  shall  presently 
give  me  more  than  tioelve  legions  of  angels'^  {St.  Matt. 
XX vi.  53.)  But  the  services  of  that  mighty  army,  the 
Hosts  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  were  among  the  consequent 
prerogatives  of  that  Divine  Glory  which  was  then,  for 
the  time,  purposely  and  willingly  laid  aside. 

But  part  of  His  Divine  Prerogative  as  the  Son  and 
Heir  is  the  Ptule  over  and  the  Administration  of  that 
vast  realm  of  created  Life  which  had  come  into  being 
through  Him,  and  is  maintained  in  being  in  and  by 
Him,  and  of  which  the  angels  are  a  part.  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, though  it  satisfies  no  vain  curiosity,  and  gives  no 
ground  or  encouragement  to  rash  speculation,  yet  does 
so  repeatedly  reveal  the  fact  of  the  employment  of 
angels  as  subordinate  agents  in  the  realm  of  nature 
and  as  wielding  its  powers,  under  God  and  according 
to  His  Will,  for  mercy  or  for  judgement,  as  to  convey 
the  impression  that  the  cases  specially  recorded  are 
only  the  manifested  specimens  and  examples  of  what 
is  really  a  general  principle,  a  predominant  feature,  in 
the  systematic  economy  of  the  Universe.  [A^^endix, 
Note  3.) 

G  2 


84  Interest  of  the  A  ngels  in  the  glories  of  Creation,  [lect. 

47.  Certainly  the  Eevelations  of  Science  as  to  the 
scale  of  Creation,  the  grandeur  of  its  forces,  the  wonder- 
ful character  of  its  phenomena,  seem  to  make  it  quite 
natural  to  believe  that  it  may  well  furnish  a  worthy 
field  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest  faculties  of  created 
intelligences  of  the  very  highest  order  and  the  most 
glorious  endowments.  We  see,  as  yet,  but  a  little  way, 
whether  over  the  extent  or  into  the  depths  of  Creation; 
and  yet  how  pure,  how  elevating,  how  absorbing  the 
pleasure  and  interest  with  which  we  survey  that  little ! 
With  wliat  eager  anticipation  of  greater  wonders  and 
glories  still  does  even  the  untrained  bystander,  the 
iSiu)Tr]s  (layman),  watch  for  further  knowledge  of  things 
hidden  as  yet,  but  whose  revelation  may  be  the  crowning 
reward  of  further  patient  toil,  to  the  glory  and  praise 
of  God !  That  such  toil  is  one  of  man's  appointed  tasks 
and  duties,  as  it  is  most  surely  the  means  of  some  of 
his  greatest  enjoyments,  we  do  not  doubt.  But  if  so, 
how  much  more  to  those  higher  natures  who  in  intel- 
lectual grasp,  as  in  other  gifts,  are  greater  in  jjower 
and  might  ?  That  the  promise  to  redeemed  mankind  of 
equality  with  the  angels,  in  our  future  state  of  complete 
restoration,  includes  an  unspeakable  advance  in  the 
powers  brought  to  bear  on  the  investigation  of  nature, 
its  capacities  and  uses  and  its  general  purpose,  and 
consequently  a  proportionate  increase  in  the  ground 
and  motive  for  the  most  joyful  adoration  and  praise, 
cannot  surely  be  questioned.  To  enter  more  and  more 
fully  into  the  sublime  truth,  that  all  things  came  into 
being  through  the  Son  of  God,  continue  in  being  in 
Him,  and  tend  to   their  ultimate  perfection  through 


II.]        Moral  Life,  and  Pj^obation,  of  the  Angels.      85 

Him  and  for  Him  ;  to  learn  more  and  more  of  tlie  won- 
drous relations  of  all  things  to  Him  Who  is  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  the  Whole,  and  of  the  meaning  and  con- 
sequences of  that  connection  with  Him  which  is  as  yet 
only  revealed  to  us  in  the  general  statement  of  the 
fact ;  to  see  all  this  with  an  ever-growing  insight,  and 
so  to  realize  ever  more  and  more  the  Divine  Glory  and 
Dignity  of  Him  Who  yet,  '  for  us  men  and  for  our  sal- 
vation, came  down  from  Heaven  and  was  Incarnate  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  was  made 
Man,' — this  must  surely  be  no  small  part  of  the  future 
joy  of  those  who  shall  through  Him  have  realized  the 
end  of  their  being. 

48.  Yet,  great  as  is  in  this  respect  the  joy  of  the 
a,ngels,  in  which  we  hope  to  share,  far  above  this  stands 
their  wondering  delight  in  the  fuller  manifestation  of 
the  moral  Attributes  of  God  as  not  only  the  Almighty 
Creator  but  also  the  all-loving  Father,  Who  longs  for 
the  answering  conscious  love  of  His  finite  created  chil- 
dren made  in  His  Image,  after  His  Likeness,  and  so  with 
wiU  and  affections,  with  moral  nature  and  capacity  of 
love.  Material  Nature,  grand  and  glorious  as  it  is,  is 
yet  in  itself,  even  in  its  highest  animated  forms,  but 
the  ground  and  basis  of  a  higher,  a  moral  and  spiritual 
life,  the  evolution  of  which  is  its  higher,  more  inclusive, 
aim  and  reason  for  existence,  and  to  wliich  it  is  its 
place  and  function  subordinately  to  minister.  Here 
again  the  recorded  Revelation  which  God  has  given  to 
man  answers  no  curious  questions,  and  leaves  much,  as 
yet,  in  deep  and  impenetrable  mystery.  Yet  it  does 
reveal,  in  broad  outline,  the  tremendous  truth  that,  in 


',86  Entrance  of  Evil  into  the  Creation         [lect. 

the  earlier  world  of  conscious  intelligent  life  of  the 
angelic  order,  tlie  mightiest  issues  of  a  moral  and 
spiritual  kind  had  already  been  tried,  and  with  the 
most  tremendous  and  far-reaching  results,  ere  yet  Man 
was  born  on  this  lower  earth.  Moral  and  spiritual  Evil 
had  been  generated  in  even  the  highest  of  the  heavenly 
'places  ;  and  on  a  scale  of  extent  and  of  intensity  which 
staggers  human  thought.  The  revelation  of  this  fact 
to  man  was  necessary  to  account  for  the  condition  in 
which  he  finds  himself  and  all  things  around  him. 
And  although  little  beyond  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  evil  in  evil  beings,  prior  to  and  external  to  man  and 
man's  world,  is  revealed  in  Holy  Scripture ;  yet  that 
little,  combined  with  the  moral  knowledge  open  to  man 
by  natural  means,  through  the  observant  study  of  his 
own  moral  constitution  and  the  experience  of  life  in 
himself  and  his  fellows,  may  lead  us  so  far  as  to  the 
following  conclusions  : — 

God  made  all  things  good ;  and,  especially,  all  per- 
sons, i.e.  all  beings  endowed  with  a  distinct  individual 
conscious  existence.  He  made  all  such  conscious  per- 
sonal beings  to  be  susceptible  of  Himself,  conscious  of 
Himself,  as  well  as  of  themselves  and  of  each  other, 
and  of  the  world  around  them.  For  this  He  endowed 
them,  not  only  with  mind  and  intellect,  perceptive  and 
reflective,  faint  finite  shadows  of  His  own  Divine  Logos, 
but  also  with  moral  affections,  that  they  might  love 
Him,  the  Source  of  their  being  and  of  all  their  joy. 
But  that  love  should  be  love  it  was  necessary  that  it 
should  be  given.  Love  not  consciously  felt  and  willed, 
love  not  given  by  a  conscious,  voluntary  movement  of 


II.]    through  the  necessary  Free-will  of  the  Creature.    87 

the  creature  towards  its  God  is  not  love  at  all.  Love 
extorted  (were  that  conceivable)  from  an  unwilling 
subject  were  hardly  more  a  contradiction  in  terms. 
Hence  the  very  purpose  of  the  creature's  existence 
could  not  possibly  be  attained  without  the  added  gift, 
awful  and  godlike  as  it  is,  of  Will,  self-choosing,  self- 
determining  Will,  really  free,  else  were  it  no  Will  at  all. 
God,  by  the  very  law  of  His  Existence,  and  because 
He  is  Love,  must  of  necessity  present  to  the  apprehen- 
sion of  His  conscious  and  susceptible  creatures  every 
conceivable  and  possible  reason  why  they  should  love 
Him,  and  so  He  attract  their  love.  But,  equally  of 
necessity,  the  response  must  rest  in  the  bosom  of  the 
creature  himself  Thus  when  there  was  no  evil  in  the 
Universe,  there  was  the  inevitable  possibility  of  evil,  in 
the  inevitable  existence  of  Free- Will  ;  inevitable  if 
there  were  to  be  any  forms  of  finite  personal  life. 
The  temptation,  the  probation  {an  essentially  neces- 
sary condition  of  the  moral  discipline  and  development 
of  the  creature  towards  God),  lay  in  the  very  thought 
that  it  was  possible  to  withhold'  love  from  God  Who 
claimed  it.  This  withholding  must  amount  to  a  violent 
conscious  act  of  wilful  defiance  and  self-assertion  against 
God ;  it  must  amount,  in  effect,  in  tendency,  and  in  its 
real  essential  character,  to  that  attempted  annihilation 
of  God  which  is  the  real  inner  essence  of  all  sin,  which 
is  the  irreconcileable  contradiction  of  God.  Love  from 
the  creature  towards  God  must  necessarily  be  the  love 
of  submission  and  obedience,  nay  of  worship  ;  and  must 
carry  in  itself  of  necessity  the  acknowledgment  of  de- 
pendence.    A   possible   refusal   was  the   possibility  of 


S8  Pride  and  Self-assertion  against  God      [lect. 

the  assertion  of  independence ;  of  the  assertion,  that  is, 
of  a  position  which  is  the  sole  prerogative  of  the  Al- 
mighty, the  Self-Existent. 

49.  We  can  thus,  in  some  measure  at  least,  under- 
stand that  the  original  sin,  the  primary  root  of  all  sin, 
the  defiant  act  of  him  who,  whatever  his  rank  in  the 
scale  of  created  life  (and  it  may  conceivably  have  been 
the  highest),  was  the  first  leader  of  rebellion  against 
the  sovereign  supremacy  of  God,  was  Pride.  It  was 
the  lust  of  independence  at  whatever  cost ;  the  longing 
for  a  separate  kingdom  of  his  own,  the  assertion  of 
self  and  of  self-sufficiency,  the  dethronement,  the  anni- 
hilation of  God,  the  deification  of  self.  {Appendix, 
Note  4.) 

In    this   all-inclusive    sin,   this   root   of  sin,    which 
carries  in  itself  that  which  is  the  very  damning  essence 
of  all  sin  (the  rebellion,   namely,   of  self  and  its  will 
against   God   and   His  Will,  the   absolute  defiance  of 
God  whensoever  His  Will  crosses  any  form  of  self-will, 
or  contradicts  any  gratification  on  which  self-will  may 
be  set),  there  is  further  inherent  a  special  jealousy  and 
envy,  a  special  conscious  rejection,  of  that  royal  Heir- 
ship and  present  eternal  Sovereignty  over  the  whole 
realm  of  created  Existence  which  belongs  inherently, 
by  right  of  His  First-born  Sonship,   to  the  Only-Be- 
gotten.    Hence  arises  an  essential  antagonism,  absolute 
and  irreconcileable,  so  long  as  the  counter-claim  of  rival 
sovereignty  is  maintained  against  Him  by  the  author 
of  Evil.     This  one  fact  is  of  supreme  and  overruling 
import  in  the  view  and  'estimate  of  the  revealed  Work 
of  Him  Who  '  was  manifested  that  He  might  destroy  the 


II.]  the  inner  essence  of  Sin.  89 

works  of  the  devil,  and  make  us  the  sons  of  God  and 
heirs  of  eternal  life/  It  points  to  the  Son  of  God  at 
once  as  the  necessary  and  only  champion  of  fallen, 
suifering  man  as  against  the  great  rival,  the  invader, 
the  usurper,  the  tempter  and  seducer  of  a  weaker 
and  more  ignorant  being  into  disobedience  and  sin. 
It  points  to  the  necessity,  for  His  own  glory  and 
honour's  sake,  as  w^ell  as  from  pity  towards  those  who 
were  the  victims  of  the  lie,  of  the  revindication  by  the 
Son  of  God  in  person  of  His  own  rightful  and  inalien- 
able authority  ;  and,  of  course,  to  the  absolute  certainty 
of  His  ultimate  complete  triumph,  and  the  full  re- 
establishment  of  His  Kingdom  over  man  and  man's 
world,  in  righteousness  and  in  truth,  and  therefore  in 
happiness  and  in  peace.  It  reveals,  to  the  full,  the 
deep  malignity  and,  as  well,  the  deep  humiliation  of 
sin,  in  that  it  shows  the  active,  the  purposed,  the 
conscious,  the  aggressive,  the  personal  character,  in  its 
ultimate  aspects,  of  the  opposition  and  conflict  between 
Good  and  Evil,  and  the  deadly  irreconcileable  hatred 
that  must  exist  between  their  personal  representatives  ; 
and  it  involves,  further,  the  awful  truth  that  the  willing 
service  of  sin  involves  the  being  taken  captive  by  the 
evil  one  at  his  ivill ;  and  so,  in  the  result,  sooner  or 
later,  however  veiled  and  disguised  at  first,  the  con- 
scious submission  to  the  evil  one  of  the  sin-enslaved 
soul  and  its  worship  of  him  as  God. 

50.  In  what  formal  act  the  first  sin  of  the  devil 
and  his  angels  took  shape  on  their  yielding  their  free- 
will to  the  inwardly  generated  suggestions  of  pride, 
we  are  not  expressly  told.     It  may  have  been  in  itself 


go         The  outward  form  of  the  first  act  of  sin.    [lect. 

a  very  simple  act ;  as  simple  as  the  plucking  of  the 
forbidden  fruit ;  yet  carrying  with  it  all  its  awful 
consequences,  just  because  it  was  the  known  and  under- 
stood act  of  rebellion  and  disobedience.  Holy  Scripture, 
in  one  place  bearing  on  the  subject,  seems  to  intimate 
that  it  was  the  overstepping,  the  transgression,  of 
appointed  local  bounds.  The  Epistle  of  St.  Jude  tells 
us  that  some  of  the  angels  liej^t  not  rrju  eavrwv  ap-)(f]v  {their 
oion  principality),  hut  left  to  'ISiov  oiKtjr^piov  [their  proper 
habitation).  Some  commentators  refer  this  to  what  is 
mentioned  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis,  The  sons 
of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men  that  they  iverefair,  and 
they  took  them  wives  of  all  which  they  choose;  interpreting, 
as  the  Septuagint  translators  do,  the  sons  of  God  to 
mean  angels.  This  is  a  most  uncertain  interpretation, 
and  seems  to  involve  insuperable  difficulties.  But  were 
it  accepted,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  act,  which 
was  one  of  lustful  sin,  is  to  be  identified  with  the  act 
to  which  St.  Jude  refers.  His  language  would  rather 
point  to  what  other  passages  of  the  Bible  render  pro- 
bable, that  to  the  holy  angels  were  assigned,  under 
the  Son  of  God,  defined  regions  of  God's  created 
Universe,  over  which,  in  their  several  ranks,  they  were 
to  exercise  a  delegated  authority,  subject  to  the  Will 
of  God  as  declared  through  His  Son.  The  sin  pointed 
to  seems  rather  that  of  pride  and  rebellion,  leading  them 
to  refuse  to  confine  themselves  within  the  limits  which 
God  had  assigned  them. 

51.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  how  such  a  sin  may  have 
had  to  the  full  all  the  characteristics  of  a  wilful  and 
deliberate  defiance  of  the  power  of  Almighty  God  and 


II.]  Effects  of  sill  on  angelic  natures.  g  i 

of  the  authority  of  His  Son,  and  may  have  resulted  at 
once  in  the  complete  and  final  estrangement  and  se- 
paration from  God,  Who  alone  is  Life  and  Light,  and 
so  in  the  necessary  banishment  of  the  rebels  from  the 
Light  of  His  Presence  and  their  confinement  in  ever- 
lasting chains  of  darkness  unto  the  judgement  of  the  Great 
Day  (St.  Jude  6).  Such  an  act  as  theirs  may  well  have 
been  an  act  of  spiritual  suicide.  Certainly  Holy  Scrip- 
ture gives  no  hint  of  any  possibility  of  their  restoration. 
For  them,  for  the  devil  and  his  angels,  is  the  eternal 
fire  prepared.  (St.  Matt.  xxv.  41  :  Aj^j^endix,  Note  5.) 
In  their  simpler,  though  higher,  nature,  in  the  ori- 
ginal adult  completeness  of  each  individual  angel  in 
his  rank  and  place,  in  the  more  immediate  and  direct 
relation  of  each  one  separately,  as  apart  from  his  fel- 
lows, to  the  Father  of  Sinrits,  to  the  Eternal  Son,  their 
Lord  and  King  as  well  as  their  Mediator,  and  to  the 
Holy  Spirit,  Ave  may  see  considerations  wdiich  would 
give  to  the  act  of  sin  and  rebellion,  in  them,  a  specially 
deadly  character,  in  addition  to  its  enhanced  heinous- 
ness  arising  from  the  absence,  in  their  case,  of  any 
external  temptation  or  seduction.  The  act  of  sin,  in 
the  case  of  each  one  who  fell,  must  have  been  much 
more  a  conscious,  wilful,  and  deliberate  act,  done  with 
foresight  of  its  consequences,  and  so  much  more  of 
the  nature  of  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  on  Whose 
continued  presence  with  them  and  within  them,  con- 
sciously apprehended  and  longed-for,  depended  their 
continued  spiritual  life  and  its  growing  development. 
Their  rebellion  would  involve  a  distinct  conscious  re- 
jection and  exclusion  of  Him  and  of  His  influences,  by 


92  Foi'esecn  loss  tJn'oiigh  sin  [lect. 

an  act  of  will  which,  in  a  more  purely  spiritual  nature 
than  that  of  man,  would  at  once  cut  off  the  spirit  from 
the  Source  of  good,  and  fill  it  with  darkness  and  with 
defiant  hatred  of  God,  such  as  must  draw  after  it  exclu- 
sion from  the  light  of  Heaven  and  imprisonment  under 
the  chains  of  a  self-made  darkness,  in  an,  apparently, 
hopeless  condemnation. 

52.  We  are  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  the  awful 
fact  of  the  existence  of  evil ;  not  of  mere  pain,  which 
has  its  manifold  uses,  and  is  singularly  evanescent, 
forgotten  almost  as  soon  as  past ;  but  of  moral  evil,  of 
hatred  of  good,  of  spiritual  ivicJcedness  in  high  ])laces, 
in  the  highest  ranks  of  being ;  of  an  accursed  delight 
in  drawing  others  into  rebellion  against  God,  in  bring- 
ing degradation  and  ruin  on  God's  pure  and  perfect 
handiwork ;  and  of  consequent  awful  suffering  and  de- 
gradation, present  and  future  (must  we  not  say  eternal  ?), 
as  the  portion  of  the  wicked  angels  themselves. 

Before  so  inscrutable  a  mystery  we  bow,  in  humble 
acceptance  of  the  fact.  We  acknowledge  its  difficulty  ; 
which  is,  not  that  we  cannot  account  for  its  origin,  for 
the  possibility  lay  (as  we  have  seen)  in  the  awful  godlike 
gift  to  the  creature  of  Free-will,  a  gift  we  can  easily  see 
to  be  inevitable  if  there  was  to  be  moral  life  and  capa- 
city of  loving  God  in  the  creature, — but  rather  this, 
that  the  abuse  of  that  inevitable  gift  of  Free-will,  in 
the  case  of  we  know  not  how  many  of  God's  highest 
creatures,  was,  if  not  inevitable,  at  least  foreseen  in  the 
prescience  of  God.  This  we  must  allow.  God  foresaw 
it  all  ;  and  yet  God  created  angels  and  men.  We 
exult  with  joy  and  thanksgiving  in  the  manifestation 


II.]  of  some  angels  and  men.  93 

of  love  and  wisdom  and  power  in  the  material  Uni- 
verse ;  and  still  more  in  the  gifts  and  powers  and 
happiness  of  angels  and  of  men  ;  yes,  of  human  beings 
even  in  this  present  life,  much  more  in  the  thought 
of  them  redeemed  and  glorified  and  happy  for  ever. 
We  dwell  with  amazed  delight  on  the  thought  of  so 
vast,  so  illimitable,  a  sum  of  happiness  ;  of  happiness 
realised  in  the  present  and  expanding  for  ever  with 
an  illimitable  capacity  of  development.  But  there  is 
the  thought  of  the  inevitable  shadow ; — '  This  is  not 
true  of  all.'  There  are  those  who  will  bO;  must  be, 
shut  out  of  it ;  we  know  not  how  many,  of  angels  and 
of  human  beings  ;  and  that  for  ever,  in  misery,  con- 
scious, deserved,  endless.  It  is  no  question,  or  only  to 
a  comparatively  slight  extent,  of  what  may  be  the 
proportion  of  the  lost  to  those,  we  doubt  not  incon- 
ceivably the  greater  number,  in  whom  ultimately  the 
end  of  their  being  will  be  blessedly  realized.  The 
mind  refuses  to  cast,  in  such  a  matter,  a  balance  of  loss 
and  gain,  or  to  say  that  the  cost,  however  appalling 
when  regarded  in  itself,  sinks  into  insignificance  in 
comparison  with  the  object  secured.  We  stagger  at 
the  thought  that  any  creatures,  conscious,  intelligent, 
immortal,  formed  for  unspeakable  happiness  in  loving 
and  seeing  God,  should  yet  be  cut  off  from  Him  for 
ever  in  misery  unending  ;  and  that  God,  in  creating 
them,  foreknew  this.  We  know  and  are  persuaded 
that  ihe  Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  do  right.  We  know 
that  the  final  award  of  the  Righteous  Governour  of  the 
universe  upon  all  will  be  absolutely  just  and  absolutely 
merciful.     We  know  that  God   gives  to  each  one  of 


94 


Nahcre  of  God's  Presence  to  [lect. 


His  creatures  exactly  as  much,  in  kind  and  in  degree, 
of  His  presence,  as  it  is  momently  capable  of ;  and  that 
unless  this  were  so  it  must  absolutely  cease,  and  that 
instantly,  to  exist  at  all.  We  know  that  from  any 
originally  capable  of  it,  the  gracious  and  welcome  Pre- 
sence is  withdrawn  solely  because  of  their  self-caused 
incapacity  to  receive  it.  But  if  we  add,  as  we  must,  to 
the  subjective  consciousness,  on  the  part  of  the  creature, 
of  this  poe7ia  clamni,  of  this  loss  of  the  sj^iritual  Presence 
the  further  consciousness  of  the  continuing  close  natural 
Presence  (inevitable  as  the  very  condition  of  its  exist- 
ence at  all),  of  a  Being  Whom  it  hates,  and  whose 
presence  must  therefore  be  to  it  simply  that  of  a  con- 
suming fire,  we  are  confronted  at  once  with  a  thought 
whose  overpowering  horror  makes  us  dumb.  It  is  this 
thought,  much  dwelt  upon  in  the  present  day,  which 
forces  so  many  upon  one  or  other  of  the  two  expedients 
of  Universalism  or  AnniMlationism  as  a  way  of  escape. 
Men  would  fain  persuade  themselves,  in  the  presence 
of  so  great  a  difficulty,  that  either  future  punishment 
must  in  every  case  be  corrective,  and  in  the  long  run, 
after  whatever  prolonged  discipline,  be  finally  in  every 
case  successful ;  or  else  that,  in  the  case  of  those  who 
shall  be  finally  incorrigible,  it  shall  end  in  their  ceasing 
to  exist.     {8ee  above,  §  39.) 

It  is  no  part  of  our  present  task  to  discuss  these  rival 
theories.  We  only  remark  that,  as  Origen  perceived, 
the  difficulty  is  not  really  removed  unless  the  case  of 
the  angels  be  included  as  well  as  that  of  mankind. 
And  we  have  been  drawn  into  mentioning  it  only 
because  it   is  inherent   in   the   very   thought   of  any 


II.]  the  consciousness  of  the  lost.  95 

creation  at  all,  such  as,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  know  it. 
As  so  inherent  we  must  accept  it ;  content  to  await  its 
explanation,  but  knowing,  meanwhile,  that  the  Creator 
is  as  purely  Merciful  and  as  purely  Just  as  He  is  Al- 
mighty, and  that  the  mystery  of  Creation,  when  fully 
unfolded,  will  be  only  the  final  and  complete  manifest- 
ation, to  the  heart  and  mind  of  every  intelligent 
creature,  of  all  the  attributes  of  Him  Who  is  Love. 

On  the  Fall  of  the  Angels  and  the  Origin  of  Evil  see 
Hooker,  E.  P.  Book  I.  iv.  3,  and  Book  V.  Appendix  No.  i. 
(Keble's  Edition,  Vol.  II.  p.  565.) 


LECTUEE    III. 

THE   CREATION   OF  MAN;   ITS    RELATION 
TO  THE   INCARNATION. 

Genesis  i.  26.  "  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image, 
after  our  likeness.  ...  So  God  created  man  in  His  own 
image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  He  him." 

53.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  first  dividing  line 
in  the  scale  of  Being  is  that  between  the  Self-Existent 
and  the  Created,  the  Infinite  and  the  Finite,  the  merely 
Spiritual  and  the  Material.  Below  that  line,  first  and 
highest  are  the  Angelic  natures. 

Looking  at  the  scale  of  Being  from  its  lowest  point, 
we  find  at  its  base  mere  inorganic  matter,  various  in 
form,  stupendous  in  bulk,  passively  subject  to  uniform 
law,  without  growth,  yet  subject  to  changes  of  the 
extremest  kind  under  the  operation  of  uniform  law. 
Above  this  we  draw  a  second  dividing  line,  to  mark  off 
— what  is  clearly  distinguishable  from  it,  though  in  its 
lowest  forms  passing  almost  insensibly  into  it — organ- 
ized matter,  i.e.  matter  associated  with  life  ;  an  associa- 
tion wdiich  is  evidenced  by  growth  and  reproduction. 

A  third  dividing  line  is  that  which  separates  between 
the  upper,  or  invisible,  created  world,  the  angelic  world, 
and  the  lower,  or  visible,  created  world,  the  world  of 
which  we  are  immediately  a  part,  and  witli  which  we 
are  familiar.  This  is  a  very  decisive  line ;  though 
(possibly)  not  in  itself  so  much   so   as   is   commonly 


III.]  Gradations  of  Organized  Life.  97 

thought;  (for  the  higher  spiritual  spheres  of  the  purely 
divine  and  of  the  angelic  life  surround  us  always  and 
everywhere  ;  and  we  are  immersed  in  them,  though  we 
apprehend  them  not  save  by  faith) ;  yet  for  us  as  men 
a  decisive  line,  because  it  is  the  limit  of  our  natural 
and  ordinary  sight. 

Beneath  this  line  are  the  Human,  the  Animal,  and  the 
Vegetable  worlds  of  Organized  Life,  clearly  connected, 
albeit  through  infinite  gradations.  Of  these  the  higher 
forms  at  each  stage  include  the  essential  constituents 
of  the  lower,  together  with  tlieir  more  distinguishing 
elements ;  while  Man,  the  highest  form  of  organized 
living  matter  within  the  visible  sphere  of  this  lower 
world,  though  formed  of  the  very  dust  of  the  ground, 
includes  and  represents,  in  his  constituent  elements, 
alike  both  the  purely  material,  the  vegetable,  and  the 
animal  world ;  but  with  these  combines  those  higher 
elements  which  difference  him  absolutely  and  essentially 
from  the  lower  creatures,  notwithstanding  his  points 
of  resemblance  and  links  of  connection  with  them,  and 
which  make  him  human. 

54.  Holy  Scripture  teaches  us  that  the  creation  of 
the  invisible  world  of  the  angels  preceded  that  of  the 
visible  world  and  of  man ;  but  by  what  space  of  time  it 
gives  us  no  idea.  Such  was  no  part  of  its  purpose ; 
which  is,  to  record  the  story  of  God's  dealings  with 
His  creature  Man.  It  begins  with  the  statement  of 
the  fundamental  truth  that  the  existence  of  the  visible 
and  material  world,  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,  is 
due  to  the  creative  act  of  God,  an  act  which  took  i>lace 
in  the  heginning,   in   some    remote,   possibly   in    some 

H 


98      Processes  of  Nature  to  be  sttLciied  by  Science,  [lect. 

inconceivably  remote,  past.  The  first  two  verses  of  the 
Book  of  Genesis  allow  for  as  many  millions  of  years  as 
modern  science  (whose  divinely-appointed  task  and  duty 
it  is  to  study  physical  nature)  may  discover  it  to  be 
necessary  to  jDOstulate.  And  in  its  subsequent  descrip- 
tion of  the  order  of  creation  and  the  successive  develop- 
ment (or  evolution,  if  we  like  to  use  the  word)  of  things 
created,  a  development  which  culminates  at  last  in 
Man,  there  is  really  nothing  that  is  not  quite  reconcile- 
able  with  the  really  attested  truths  of  Physical  Science. 
More  than  this  we  need  not,  we  have  no  right,  to  ask. 
The  investigation  of  processes,  the  observation  of  the 
Laws  (so-called)  which  govern  the  development  of 
material  nature  and  the  evolution  of  life  up  to  its 
highest  visible  forms,  whether  from  a  primordial  germ 
or  otherwise  (or  rather,  we  should  say,  the  observation 
of  the  course  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  develop- 
ment has  followed),  is  within  the  grasp  of  man's  natural 
intellectual  powers  patiently  and  laboriously  exercised ; 
and  so  is  left  to  them  for  their  exercise,  to  the  glory 
and  praise  of  God  and  to  the  benefit  of  man.  What 
Revelation  insists  on,  in  perfect  conformity  with  the 
common  sense  and  verdict  of  mankind,  and  with  the 
necessary  conclusions  of  the  highest  Reason,  is  the 
fundamental  truth,  that,  behind  all  material  nature 
and  its  phenomena,  behind  all  that  exists  and  which 
man  can  apprehend,  there  is  a  Personal  and  intelligent 
and  Almighty  Will,  a  Self-Existent  Uncreated  Life, 
the  great  First  Cause  of  all,  the  present  Sustainer  and 
Upholder  of  all,  the  all-wise  and  all-merciful  Ruler  and 
Controller  of  all. 


III.]         Man,  tJic  Head  of  the  visible  zuorid,  99 

55.  At  the  head  of  this  lower  and  visible  sphere  of 
created  nature  stands,  by  divine  appointment,  Man,  the 
sovereign  and  lord,  under  God,  of  all ;  the  being  for 
whose  sake  this  lower  world  was  made,  and  to  whom 
it,  and  all  that  is  in  it,  leads  up  ;  crowned  loith  glory 
and  honour  by  his  Creator,  Who  made  him,  in  this  his 
destined  dwelling-place,  to  have  dominion  over  the  ivorhs 
of  His  Hands,  and  jjh^  all  things  under  his  feet.  Placed 
thus  in  the  scale  of  intellio-ent  created  Ufe  Man  is  made 
a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  as  belonging  to  a  clearly 
different  sphere,  the  epitome  and  representative  of  an 
order  of  things  more  closely  bound  up  with  matter ; 
clothed  in  a  body  of  flesh  and  blood,  itself  a  marvellous 
piece  of  God's  handiwork,  wrought  out  of  the  very 
elements  of  the  ground  on  which  he  walks,  and  ani- 
mated, in  the  present  life,  by  a  living  soul,  a  ^v)^v, 
which  ministers  to  and  subserves  his  higher  life  of 
intellect  and  spirit.  It  is  a  part  of  this  closer  relation 
to  matter,  this  possession,  at  least  in  the  first  stage  of 
its  existence,  of  an  animal  nature,  that  the  Human  Kace 
was  not  created  at  once  in  a  certain  definite  number  of 
individuals,  as  it  is  thought  the  angels  were,  each  in 
his  full  adult  completeness,  from  the  first ;  but  in  posse, 
as  contained  in  the  Protoplast,  in  the  primeval  pair, 
and  so  developed  by  the  unbroken  succession  of  natural 
generation,  by  reproduction  from  them.  There  is  no- 
thing analogous  to  this  in  the  angelic  nature.  We  are 
expressly  told  that  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in 
marriage.  Here  is  a  marked  distinction  between  the 
'  bodiless  powers  ' — bodiless  though  not  merely  spirit  or 
un-material — of  the  heavenly  world,  and  man  with  his 

u  2 


lOO    and  the  most  representative  of  all  creatures,  [lect. 

compound  oXoKXtjpov  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  In  the 
connection  of  each  individual  with  those  who  have  gone 
before,  in  the  natural  relationship  of  a  constitution  of 
flesh  and  blood  inherited  from  a  common  source,  there 
is  in  the  Human  Hace  a  unity  and  a  solidarity  which, 
apparently,  belongs  not  to  the  angels. 

This  must  be  borne  in  mind,  as  throwing  a  light  on 
some  features  of  the  Christian  Eeligion,  especially  in 
its  sacramental  aspect ;  and  helping  us  somewhat  to 
understand  the  work  of  Redemption,  as  carried  out  on 
behalf  of  man,  and  not,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  of  the 
angels  who  sinned. 

56.  It  is  the  peculiar  feature  of  Man's  position  in 
the  scale  of  Created  Life  that  he  is  of  all  creatures  the 
most  completely  representative.  His  compound  nature 
is  the  most  complete  summary,  the  microcosm,  of  all  else 
that  is.  In  his  spiritual  nature  he  is  like  the  angels, 
and  has  the  capacity,  as  redeemed,  of  becoming,  in  his 
full  consummation,  equal  to  the  angels  {la-dyyekoi,  St. 
Luke  XX.  36).  In  his  lower  nature  he  includes  the 
elements  of  aU  that  is  beneath  him  in  the  lower  forms 
of  life,  and  even  of  brute  inorganic  matter. 

In  these  facts  we  may  perhaps  see  some  of  the  rea- 
sons why,  if  there  was  to  be  a  union  of  the  Creator  with 
the  creature,  it  should  take  place  in  our  natm^e. 

Saint  Thomas  Aquinas  shews  (iii.  4.  i)  that  it  is  only 
in  Human  Nature  that  the  two  conditions  of  meetness  or 
dignity  and  of  necessity  are  united.  To  the  irrational 
creation  dignity  is  wanting- ;  to  the  superhuman  or 
angelic,  necessity.  For  the  angels  (he  argues)  are  not 
g-enerated  as  men  are  ;  nor  born,  as  men  are,  under  a  law 


HI.]         The  Compound  Constitution  of  Man.  loi 

of  ovig-inal  sin,  to  the  inheritance  of  a  tainted  nature. 
There  is  no  abstract  common  angelic  nature.  Each  angel 
is,  from  his  first  creation,  perfect  in  his  own  personality, 
from  which  it  follows  that  the  Son  of  God  could  not  have 
taken  the  angelic  nature  without  superseding,  indeed 
annihilating,  the  personality  of  some  one  particular  angel ; 
and  the  sin  of  the  evil  angels,  who  might  seem  to  satisfy 
the  condition  of  necessity,  is  (he  says)  irremediable. 

Human  nature  as  the  highest  product  of  the  creative 
energy  of  God  as  exercised  in  this  lower  visible  and 
earthly  sphere,  was  perfect  and  complete  in  the  Proto- 
plast, in  whom  were  germinally  contained  all  the  several 
individual  members  of  the  race  which  was  to  grow  from 
him  as  from  its  origmal  seed  and  root :  in  the  Proto- 
plast, in  the  Adam,  not  in  the  first  pair,  but  in  the  man 
alone,  from  whom,  and  not  separately,  the  woman  was 
derived  by  a  subsequent  special  act  of  God's  creative 
power.  The  material  substratum  of  Man  was  first 
formed  in  the  perfection  of  its  physical  organization, 
with  all  its  contained  capacities ;  whether  by  direct 
immediate  act,  or  by  slow  evolution  from  lower  forms, 
is  reall}^  immaterial.  Into  this  God  hreailied,  the  hreath 
of  Ife,  and  man  became  a  living  soul  {"^v^h  <^<^o-«)  in- 
dwelling in  a  natural  hody  (o-w/xa  -^vyjiKov),  which  was 
the  tabernacle  not  only  of  the  soul  (^('I'X'?)  ^^^  the  mind 
{vov<i),  but  also  of  his  sjpirit  {irvevixa),  the  highest,  the 
most  godlike,  the  immortal,  element  in  his  compound 
constitution  ;  and  further,  of  (what  is  closely  associated 
or  rather  identified  with  this)  his  Will,  his  Personality, 
his  Self,  of  wliich  the  body,  the  soul,  and  the  mind, 
and  all  that  belongs  to  the  constitution  of  human 
nature  in  the  mass  as  common  to  all,  were  to  be  the 


I02  *•  Tradiicianisin    and  '  Crcationism''        [lect. 

subordinate  and  subservient  instruments  and  organs, 
to  be  used  and  controlled  by  his  Will,  under  the 
supremacy  of  Conscience,  to  the  glory  and  praise  of 
God. 

57.  We  are  thus  able  to  distinguish  clearly  between 
what  belongs  to  the  individual  and  to  the  Kace ;  to  the 
common  Human  Nature  of  all,  and  to  the  separate, 
solitary,  responsible  self  of  each.  And  it  will  be 
important  to  distinguish  them  clearly  when  we  come 
to  consider  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation.  Much  has 
been  written,  from  the  days  of  TertulUan  downwards, 
on  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  soul  in  each  indi- 
vidual ;  and  the  rival  theories  of  Traducianism  and 
Creationism  have  found  their  advocates.  What  is 
needed,  as  it  would  seem,  to  enable  us  to  thread  our 
way  through  this  controversy  is  a  steady  recollection 
of  the  Scriptural  distinction  between  the  three  great 
elements  in  the  constitution  of  each  man,  his  o-w^cia,  -^v')(in, 
and  Trvevfxa  (body,  soul,  spirit).  The  question  is  con- 
fused so  long  as  the  distinction  between  the  two  latter 
is  merged  in  the  general  term  '  soul.'  Speaking  accu- 
rately, the  '  soul,'  or  ^v^n,  is  the  animal,  natural,  and 
earthly  life-force  of  man  ;  intimately  associated  with, 
profoundly  influenced  by,  his  physical  and  material 
nature ;  running  up,  on  its  upper  side,  into  his  mind  or 
intellect  (voug),  which  is  the  highest  form  of  natural  life 
in  man  as  man,  but  very  closely  connected  with,  and 
dependent  upon,  the  varying  condition  of  those  material 
organs  of  his  bodily  nature  through  which  the  life  of 
the  intellect  manifests  itself.  It  is,  perhaps,  most 
probable  that  Traducianism,  or  the  theory  which  main- 


III.]       both  true,  from  different  points  of  view. 


lO 


tains  the  transmission  of  the  soul  by  derivation  from 
parents,  is  very  largely  true,  though  not  sufficient 
wholly  to  cover  the  facts.  The  fact  of  the  large 
amount  of  hereditary  propagation  of  qualities,  both 
purely  bodily  and  of  a  higher  kind,  in  natural  disposi- 
tion and  temper  and  in  intellectual  capacities  and  apti- 
tudes, vv^ithin  the  sphere  ^Yhich  we  have  just  defined, 
does  not  really  admit  of  doubt.  These  inherited  quali- 
ties, dispositions,  and  tendencies,  physical,  moral,  and 
intellectual  (distinguishable,  but  most  closely  and  inex- 
tricably connected)  form  the  first  and  closest  inner  circle 
— as  our  circumstances  and  conditions,  moral,  social, 
educational,  and  otherwise,  form  the  second  and  outer 
circle — of  that  tanofled  web  of  influences  with  which 
each  man's  several  self,  in  will  and  spirit  and  personality, 
has  responsibly  to  deal.  They  constitute  the  material 
of  his  trial  and  probation,  or  part  of  it ;  the  first,  and, 
often,  the  most  determining  part.  He  is  not  responsible 
for  them,  though  he  is  for  his  use  and  development  of 
them.  God  know^s  them,  for  He  providentially  or- 
dained them.  And  God  allows  for  them  in  His  esti- 
mate, at  each  moment  and  in  the  end,  of  each  man's 
self-determined  relation  towards  them,  and  of  his  total 
resultant  character,  when  probation  is  complete. 

Yet,  while  we  incline  to  think  that,  in  respect  of 
those  lower  elements  of  each  man's  nature  wdiich,  vari- 
ously balanced  in  each  individual  case,  are  yet  the  con- 
stituents of  that  human  nature  which  is  common  to  all, 
the  traducianist  view  is  probably  correct  and  true;  it 
should  be  remembered  that  we  do  not  thereby  mean 
that   human   nature,  with  all  the    possibilities   of  its 


I04         God's  Creative  Energy  is  continuotis.      [lect. 

future  development  in  specific  cases  and  in  individuals, 
was  once  for  all  divinely  created  in  the  case  of  Adam 
and  then  left  to  develop  itself.  God  does  not  sit  apart 
from  His  Creation,  as  the  Deistic  theory  of  Transcendence 
would  have  us  think ;  but  is  immanent  in  it  at  all  times. 
In  Him  it  has  its  being.  Without  the  immanent  Pre- 
sence of  Him  Who  u]p}ioldeth  all  things  hy  the  ivorcl  of 
His  jpoiver,  it  must  sink  at  once,  as  a  whole  and  in  all 
its  parts,  into  non-entity.  The  coming  into  existence, 
therefore,  the  yevea-i^^  of  each  separate  form  of  life,  spe- 
cific or  individual,  is  still  the  act  of,  and  is  by  the  will 
of,  God  the  Creator,  whose  creative  energy  is  thus  a 
continuing  energy,  not  a  mere  act  of  the  past  over  and 
done  with.  If  the  Fifty -first  Psalm  speaks  the  lan- 
guage of  Traducianism,  the  Hundred  and  thirty-ninth 
speaks  that  of  Creationism ;  and  both  with  absolute  and 
equal  truth.  Behold,  I  ivas  shaj^en  in  wickedness,  and 
in  sin  hath  my  mother  conceived  me.  Yet  Thou  hast 
covered  me  in  my  mother  s  ivomh,  d:c.  The  gift  of  life 
is,  in  each  separate  case,  God's  direct  gift,  by  His 
creative  Spirit,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life,  operating 
through  His  Eternal  Word.  Though  it  be  in  the  lower 
portion  of  man's  nature,  and  though  it  operate,  not 
directly  and  immediately,  as  in  the  creation  of  the  Proto- 
plast, nor  as  in  the  Incarnation  of  the  Second  Adam, 
but  through  intermediate  agencies  ordained  of  God 
which  bind  the  resulting  individual  to  the  whole  mass 
of  which  he  is  a  member  and  an  outgrowth,  each  indi- 
vidual child  of  Adam  must  make  to  the  Almighty  Cre- 
ator and  Father  the  same  acknowledgment.  Thy  hands 
made  me  and  fashioned  me  [Psal.  cxix.  "jt,).     But  wlien 


III.]    Life  is  God's  gift  to  each  individual  man.     105 

from  this  region  of  our  complex  life  we  turn  our  thoughts 
towards  that  which  is  strictly  speaking  individual  and 
separate,  to  the  Will,  the  Spirit ;  and  further,  and 
behind  that  again,  to  the  immortal  personality  and 
Self,  we  may  well  adopt  the  strict  theory  of  Creation- 
ism,  and  believe  that  God  '  is  daily  and  hourly  creating 
those  myriads  of  human  souls  which  He  infuses  into 
the  bodies  prepared  by  His  Providence '  (Pusey,  Daniel, 
Preface,  p.  xxii).  We  believe  that  there  is,  in  the 
strictest  and  most  direct  and  immediate  sense,  a  sepa- 
rate and  special  gift  of  the  highest  life  from  the  Creator 
to  each  separate  man  in  his  separate  and  inalienable 
responsibility.  Here  is  that  which,  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  in  the  highest  sense,  each  man  is.  Here  is  that  which 
(whatever  may,  as  a  consequence  of  sin,  befall  the  lower 
elements  of  his  nature  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  this,  or  in  separation  from  it,  i.e.  in  the  inter- 
mediate state)  yet  is,  and  must  remain,  immortal  and 
indestructible. 

Yet  we  must  remember  that  God's  original  creation 
of  man  contemplated  (so  to  speak)  no  such  separation 
of  what  He  had  joined  together  in  so  wondrous  a  com- 
plex ;  and  included  no  such  dissolution,  temporary  or 
otherwise,  of  the  parts  which  go  to  make  \\\)  the  whole 
nature  of  Man  as  we  call  death.  Bin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  Death  hy  Sin.  Death  is  the  icages  of  sin. 
The  constitution  {oXoKXtjpov)  of  Man,  as  God  made 
Him,  in  His  oivn  imarje,  after  His  likeness,  and  as 
He  has  recreated  him  in  Christ,  is  a  complex  unity 
of  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  a  nature  compounded  of, 
and  so  representative  of,  the  various  distinctive  parts 


io6  The  Incarnation  not  contingent,  [lect. 

of  God's  whole  creation  from  the  liighest  to  the 
lowest ;  and  so,  as  our  argument  now  brmgs  us  to  see, 
the  natural  and  likely  point  in  the  scale  of  being  at 
which  so  marvellous  a  Union  of  the  Creator  with  His 
own  creation  might  a  priori,  could  we  have  regarded 
it  d,  priori,  have  been  expected  to  take  place,  as  in  point 
of  fact  it  has  taken  place. 

58.  These  considerations  must  lead  us  on  to  the  further 
thought  that  so  great  an  event  as  the  Incarnation,  as 
great,  to  say  the  least,  as  the  original  Creation  of  the 
Universe  out  of  nothing,  cannot  have  been  dependent 
on  the  (so  to  speak)  contingent  event  of  the  entrance 
of  evil  into  the  Creation,  or  the  Fall  of  Man ;  or  have 
been  (so  to  speak)  only  posteriorly  necessitated  as  the 
means  of  the  Kedemption  of  Man.  There  would  seem 
to  be  sufficient  antecedent  and  d  priori  reasons  for  it, 
apart  from  its  great,  and  to  us  nearer,  aspect  as  a 
means  of  Redemption  from  the  grasp  of  evil  and  the 
evil  one.  It  is  of  a  truth  so  stupendous  in  itself,  that  it 
would  seem  to  be,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  worth  while, 
apart  from  its  use  in  the  Bedemption  of  Man.  So 
great  a  fact  must  carry  consequences  of  the  most  far- 
reaching,  and,  to  us,  at  present,  inconceivable  kind,  to 
every  person,  to  every  thing,  that  belongs  to,  and  forms 
part  of  that.  Creation  of  which,  by  that  act,  the  Creator 
Himself  became  a  part,  thus  linking  it,  and  for  ever,  to 
Himself,  in  its  whole  sweep  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest. 

We  have  drawn  indeed  a  line,  naturally  and  neces- 
sarily, in  our  view  of  the  scale  of  being,  between  man 
and  the  angelic  world;  for  that  is  the  present  limitation 
of  our  sight — a   limitation   necessary,   for  intelligible 


III.]  and,  through  Man,  unites  all  Creation  to  God.   107 

reasons,  in  connection  with  our  work  and  duty  and 
probation  in  this  present  Hfe.  But  when  the  present 
veil  of  flesh  is  removed  we  shall  (perhaps)  see  that  there 
is  no  great  break  or  interruption ;  and  that  there  is  (so 
to  say)  a  natural  and  easy  ascent  from  the  nature  of 
man,  such  as  God  made  and  designed  it  to  be,  and  will 
bring  it  to  be  in  Christ,  up  to  the  lower  ranks  of  angelic 
life. 

The  holy  angels  are  spoken  of  in  Holy  Scripture  as 
the  80ns  of  God  ;  but  so  also  is  the  First  Adam,  and  so 
also  are  mankind  as  redeemed  in  Christ.  Man  was 
created  in  the  Image,  after  the  Likeness  of  God,  after 
the  Pattern  (that  is)  of  the  Eternal  Son,  the  Word, 
Who  is  the  Image  of  God,  after  Whose  pattern  he  is 
also  re-created.  This  statement  marks  the  original  and 
still  possible  dignity  of  our  nature,  whose  crowning 
glory  and  distinction  it  is  that  in  it  the  Union  of  the 
Creator  with  the  Creature  could  be  effected ;  that  it 
could  become  the  abiding  tabernacle,  by  a  personal  union, 
of  the  Eternal  Son  of  God.  A  nature  which  was  open 
to  such  a  possibility  as  this  is  indeed  but  a  little  loiver 
than  the  angels,  and  may  readily  be  believed  to  have  its 
abiding  place,  when  sin  is  done  away,  in  that  everlast- 
ing kingdom  of  heaven  to  which  the  holy  angels  already 
belong,  and  to  which  the  Risen  Life  of  the  Second  Adam 
points  as  its  true  home. 

Such  being  the  position  and  dignity  of  Human  Nature 
in  the  scale  of  being,  it  has  been  the  thought  of  many 
deep  Christian  thinkers,  botli  in  ancient  and  modern 
times,  that  the  Incarnation  would  have  taken  place  in 
any  case,  even  had  it  not  been  the  method  of  Man's 


1 08  The  Incarnation  probable,  even  apart  from  evil.  [lect. 

deliverance  from  a  fall  into  sin  and  from  a  bondage 
under  the  dominion  of  evil;  though,  apart  from  the 
necessities  of  the  struggle  with  evil,  it  had  not  in- 
volved the  pain  and  shame  and  death  upon  the  Cross 
of  the  Incarnate  One.  Great  names  like  Saint  Anselm 
and  Saint  Thomas  of  Aquinum  may  be  reckoned  on  the 
other  side.  They  would  not  trace  the  necessity  of  the 
Incarnation  higher  than  the  Fall,  and  the  consequent 
scheme  of  Kedemption.  Yet  is  there  nothing  contrary 
to  the  analogy  of  the  faith  in  the  Scotist  view,  and 
much,  alike  in  theoretical  reason  based  on  Kevelation, 
and  in  the  express  intimations  of  Eevelation  itself,  to 
suggest  such  a  belief. 

Considering  the  sublime  and  overpowering  character 
of  such  an  event  in  itself,  it  would  seem  to  be,  as  we 
may  so  say,  too  great  to  admit  of  its  being  thought 
of  as  in  any  way  contingent  on  any,  however  fore- 
seen, action  of  free-will  in  the  creature.  The  entrance 
of  evil  into  the  Creation  was  contingent,  not  neces- 
sary. Its  possibility  lay  (as  we  have  seen)  in  the  gift 
of  Free-Will,  itself  the  necessary  condition  of  moral 
life.  Its  being  foreseen,  in  the  all-knowing  prescience 
of  God,  does  not  diminish  its  contingency ;  though  it 
be  true  that  we,  with  our  finite  understanding,  cannot 
reconcile  the  existence  of  Free-Will  nor  the  real  con- 
tingency of  its  action  and  its  consequences  with  the 
Divine  Foreknowledge.  But  it  seems  difficult  to  think 
that  so  transcendent  a  fact  as  the  Union  of  the  Creator 
with  the  creature  in  a  personal  conjunction  can  have 
been  merely  possible,  depending  on  the  direction  taken 
by  the  will  of  the  creature. 


III.]  Its  Effects  reach  beyond  Mankind.  109 

59.  Neither  can  we  think  of  limiting  its  results  and 
effects  to  the  particular  creature  Man  in  whose  nature 
that  union  was  actually  effected.  At  whatever  point 
in  the  scale  of  created  Being  the  Creator  entered  into 
personal  conjunction  with  it,  must  not  the  effects  of 
the  contact  Le  felt,  and  that  abidingly  and  unceasingly, 
throughout  the  whole  % 

Mr.  Wordsworth,  Bcanpton  Lectures  of  1881,  speaking 
(Lect.  VI.  p.  186)  more  especially  of  the  Atonement, 
writes  thus,  of  the  '  magnificent  fulness  and  richness  of 
result  which  the  New  Testament  ascribes  to  the  work  of 
Christ,  as  the  prophets  had  foreshadowed  it.  It  takes 
into  its  view  the  whole  human  race,  from  first  to  last 
[Ttoinans  X.  18,  19;  i  Tim.  iv.  lo).  And  not  only  does 
it  extend  to  all  the  sons  of  Adam,  but  it  has  a  gracious 
influence  upon  the  highest  angels,  nay,  upon  the  in- 
animate creation  also.  It  is,  to  use  St.  Paul's  glorious 
language,  the  recapitulation,  the  reunion  of  all  things, 
both  that  are  in  heaven  and  are  on  earth  [Ejih.  i.  10; 
Col.  i.  20).  It  is  a  revelation  of  love  made  to  the  powers 
on  high,  as  w^ell  as  to  ourselves.  It  is  one  of  the  things 
which  "  angels  desire  to  look  into" '  (i  Pet.  i.  12). 

And,  p.  189.  '  But  if  the  Atonement  is  what  we  have 
seen  that  it  is  proclaimed  to  be,  an  act  inflnencinq"  the 
whole  creation,  it  touches  a  very  large  region  of  which 
we  have  only  the  faintest  conception.' 

If  this  be  true  of  the  Atonement,  it  must  be  true 
a  fortiori  of  the  Incarnation,  its  necessary  condition. 

For  is  there  not  a  wonderful  continuity  in  created 
life,  certainly  as  we  know  it  up  to  the  dividing  line 
of  our  sensible  perception  \  And  may  we  not  infer 
at  least  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  such  con- 
tinuity in  regions  of  life  beyond  our  present  sight  ? 
There  is  (we  have  seen)  no  sulBScient  reason  to  sup- 


I  lo  TJie  Life  of  the  Son  of  God  sacramentally  given  [lect. 

pose  that  created  beings  of  a  siiperlmman  order  are 
pure  Spirit,  as  God  is,  and  almost  certainly  God  alone ; 
but  rather  that  they  are  associated  with  matter,  which, 
in  subtler  and  more  ethereal  kinds  but  still  in  the  same 
essential  form  and  outhne  as  our  own,  may  enclose  their 
personality  and  their  spirit,  and  be  the  seat  and  instru- 
ment of  their  powers,  as  truly  as  our  own  grosser  and 
animal  bodies  are  to  us  in  this  present  life.  And  the 
Divine  association  of  matter  with  the  personality  of  the 
Son  of  God  may  (should  we  not  rather  say  mii&t  V)  have 
its  far-reaching  influence  even  on  those  superhuman 
unfallen  natures — natures  which,  although  needing  no 
atonement  or  cleansing  from  sin,  might  yet  be  advanced 
to  higher  developments,  and  nearer  approach  to  God 
through  His  Son,  than  had  been  possible,  even  to  them, 
apart  from  the  Incarnation.  The  Catholic  Christian 
being,  as  such,  an  earnest  believer  in  the  reality,  and, 
for  the  highest  life  of  the  creature,  the  necessity  of 
Sacramental  Grace — that  is,  of  the  inner  and  most  truly 
real  communication,  to  the  very  innermost  depths  and 
ultimate  seats  of  life,  of  the  very  essential  nature  and 
life  of  the  Son  of  God  as  a  quickening  S])irit — is  com- 
pelled to  believe  that,  even  to  the  very  highest  unfallen 
natures,  whose  life,  glorious  as  it  is,  is  yet  finite  and 
dependent  because  created,  the  real  communication  of 
the  Life  of  the  Son  of  God  is  the  source,  the  only 
source,  of  life.  And  not  of  life  only,  but  of  growth 
also  and  development,  spiritual  and  intellectual,  such 
as  needs  the  conscious  willing  co-operation  and  con- 
currence of  the  creaturely  personal  will,  laying  hold, 
with  conscious  grasp,   of  the  nourishment  offered  by 


III.]  2S  necessary  /or  the  perfection  of  the  Creature,    iii 

Him  Who  is  Angels  Food,  and  joyfully  assimilating  it 
in  growing  likeness  to  Him  Who  is  the  very  perfect 
Image  of  the  Father,  after  whose  likeness  angels  as 
well  as  men  were  created  (for  they  are  expressly  and 
specially  called  the  Sons  of  God,  J  oh  i.  6;  ii.  i ;  xxxviii. 
7),  and  in  Whom  alone  they  also  can  attain  their  per- 
fection. Such  infusion  of  life  into  them  through  the 
Son  of  God  may  have  received  an  immense  development 
throuo'h  His  association  with  created  Nature. 

o 

There  was  in  the  first  Paradise,  even  for  unfallen 
man,  a  tree  of  Ufe  of  which  he  was  to  eat,  and  live  for 
ever;  the  outward  and  visible  sign,  at  once,  and  the 
conveying  medium,  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  gift  of 
life.  And,  in  the  description  of  tlie  final,  the  consum- 
mated state  of  redeemed  Man,  in  the  New  Heavens  and 
Earth,  the  Tree  of  Life  is  again  introduced  (Bev.  xxii.  2). 
We  have  in  this  the  clear  intimation  of  the  necessity  of 
Sacramental  media  for  the  nourishment  of  the  higher, 
that  is,  the  conscious  forms  of  creaturely  life  in  all  its 
stages  and  conditions.  There  would  be  certainly  no- 
thing strange  in  the  existence  of  an  analogous  means 
of  life  for  ano-elic  beinc^s.  And  if  the  Tree  of  Life  be 
l)ut  the  type  and  figure  of  that  real  communication  of 
His  own  nature  which,  since  His  Incarnation,  the  God- 
Man  has  provided  within  the  enclosure  of  His  Church 
for  us  men,  it  were  not  unreasonable  to  believe  that 
some  corresponding  increase  of  the  nearness  and  efficacy 
of  the  means  by  which,  from  Him,  their  life  is  sustained 
may  have  taken  place  for  the  angels  also,  when  the 
Son  of  God  became,  like  them,  a  creature  and  associated 
with  matter. 


112  The  Incarnationthemeans  of  its  communication,  [lect. 

For  though  He  tooh  not  on  Him  the  nature  of  angels 
(since  had  He  done  so,  He  had  not  then  united  with 
Himself  this  lower  order  of  things  to  which  we  and 
what  is  below  us  belong),  yet  He  took  on  Him  our 
nature  as  including,  in  a  sense,  more  than,  more  various 
elements  tlian,  the  angelic  nature  ;  as  including  the 
same  elements,  albeit  in  lower  form  and  power,  and 
others  to  which  they  are  strangers  ;  so  linking  Himself 
with  them  through  us,  in  a  way  in  which  He  could 
not,  it  would  seem,  have  linked  Himself  with  us 
through  them. 

And  if  there  be  through  the  Incarnation  openings  of 
benefit,  means  of  development,  and  so  prospects  of 
greater  advancement  in  the  path  of  perfection,  alike 
to  the  natures  of  angels  and  of  men,  which  could 
not  have  otherwise  been  theirs,  then  we  may  well 
believe  that  the  great  condition  of  such  means  of 
advancement  would  not,  even  apart  from  the  redemp- 
tion of  fallen  man,  have  been  withheld.  For  the  works 
of  God  are,  in  each  kind,  of  the  highest  possible  degree 
of  goodness,  whether  actual  or  prospective,  in  esse  or 
in  ^osse.  None  are  perfect,  i.  e.  consummated,  all  at 
once,  from  the  first  instant  of  their  existence;  for  it 
belongs  to  God  only  to  be  absolutely  and  infinitely 
Perfect  without  Progress.  In  Him  alone  fact  and 
capacity  are  identical.  In  Him  alone  there  is  no 
Development,  only  Manifestation. 

'  God  alone  excepted,  who  actually  and  everlastingly 
is  whatsoever  he  may  be,  and  which  cannot  hereafter  be 
that  which  now  he  is  not :  all  other  thing's  besides  are 


Ill,]    The  Incarnation  alone  links  Creation  to  God,  113 

somewhat  in  possibility,  which  as  yet  they  are   not  in 
act.'     {Hooker,  E.  P.,  I.  v.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  215.) 

As  for  His  works,  they  are  very  good,  even  in  their 
germinal  beginnings ;  and  they  tend,  in  conformity  with 
His  designs,  to  a  (possibly)  endless  progress.  Such  pro- 
gress, in  the  case  of  beings  with  an  intellectual,  moral, 
and  spiritual  nature,  is  a  progress  in  the  knowledge  and 
love  of  God,  and  of  His  works,  and  in  growing  likeness 
to  Himself;  a  progress  which  the  personal  Union  of  the 
Mediator-Son  with  the  Creation  which  came  into  being 
through  Him,  and  exists  in  Him  and  for  Him,  must  be 
the  most  powerful  means  conceivable  of  promoting. 

On  this  ground  also,  then,  we  may  well  conceive  of 
the  Incarnation  as  designed  from  the  first  (to  use  the 
language  of  time,  which  alone  human  thought  can  use) 
together  with,  and  involved  in,  the  Creation  of  a 
Universe  of  finite  Life,  distinct  from  God ;  and  so  as 
included  in  the  Eternal  Thought  of  God.  For  in  Him 
all  that  is,  or  shall  be,  or  could  be,  existed  ideally, 
in  a  past  Eternity,  ere  yet  ought  else  but  God  began 
to  be. 

60,  Further  yet,  we  may  truly  say  that,  apart  from 
the  Incarnation  there  is,  and  must  ever  be,  an  infinite 
gulf  and  chasm  between  the  Self-Existent  and  all 
derived  and  finite  life,  however  exalted  and  glorious, 
however  good  in  its  beginnings,  however  inconceivable 
to  us  its  prospect  of  perfectibility.  There  is  no  com- 
parison between  that  which  is  finite,  however  grand  its 
scale,  and  that  which  is  absolute  and  infinite.  As  well 
from  the  highest  point  as  from  the  lowest  of  created 
life,  the  gulf  to  the  Uncreated  is  infinite.     Mediation 

I 


114  and  secures  its  Permanence,  [lect. 

becomes  a  necessity  if  there  is  to  be  any  relation  between 
God  and  the  Creature.  The  Son  of  God  has  ever  been 
that  Mediator ;  naturally,  since  all  Creation  is  through 
Him.  He  bent  across  the  gulf,  we  doubt  not,  from  the 
first,  in  loving  condescension  towards  His  creatures ;  who 
could  only  know  God,  and  draw  near  to  God,  and  draw 
life  from  God,  through  Him  and  in  Him.  Yet  was  Me- 
diation not  perfect  until  He  could  be  in  them  {St.  John 
xvii.  23),  as  well  as  they  in  Him.  To  bend  across  the 
gulf,  with  whatever  yearning  love,  is  not  to  bridge  it ;  nor 
is  creation  linked  to  the  footstool  of  the  Almighty  save 
by  the  flesh  of  Christ ;  nor  is  all  conscious  immortal 
life  bound  in  one  great  communion  of  Saints,  to  which 
belong  an  i^inumerable  comjaany  of  angels  as  well  as  all 
the  general  assembly  and  Church  of  the  first-horn,  who 
are  enrolled  in  heaven,  and  the  spirits  of  just  men  made 
jperfed,  save  in  Him  Who,  in  His  Incarnation,  is  the 
Beginning  of  the  New  Creation  of  God  as  of  the  old 
{Rev.  i.  14),  the  Father  of  the  world  to  come  {Isa.  ix.  6), 
the  Mediator  of  that  New  Covenant  {Heb.  xii.  24)  which 
was  a  fresh  departure  in  the  ways  of  God  towards  His 
creatures. 

61.  A  further  argument  may  be  drawn  from  the 
permanence  of  the  Incarnation.  If  its  sole  reason  were 
the  redemption  of  sinful  man,  it  is  conceivable  that, 
that  work  completely  eflected,  in  the  consummated 
glory  of  the  Elect,  or,  at  furthest,  at  that  ultimate  point 
when,  all  things  being  made  subject  unto  Him,  the  Son 
shall  have  delivered  up  the  kingdom  unto  the  Father 
(i  Cor.  XV.  24-28),  the  Son  might  lay  aside  the  Human 
Nature  which  He  had  assumed.     But,  on  the  contrary, 


m.]         about  which  Physical  Science  hesitates,        i  t  5 

Holy  Scripture  teaclies,  and  the  Church  has  always 
believed,  otherwise ;  namely,  that  the  Union  so  effected 
is  '  never  to  be  divided'  {Art.  ii).  But  if  the  permanent 
union  of  Creation,  in  all  its  height  and  depth,  with  the 
Creator,  be  a  further  object  beyond  and  above  the  un- 
doing the  mischief  of  sin,  then  that  object  was  a  reason 
for  the  Incarnation,  even  had  there  been  no  sin.  And 
this  may  meet  some  difficulties  that  have  been  sug- 
gested by  physical  philosophy  as  to  the  permanence  of 
Creation  and  of  Matter,  Looking  at  the  Creation 
merely  from  the  point  of  view  of  philosophic  science, 
physicists  have  thought  that  a  time  must  come  when 
the  forces  originally  implanted  in  nature  will  have  worn 
themselves  out  by  a  'degradation  of  energy,'  and  all 
return  to  coldness,  darkness,  and  nonentity. 

The  able  and  thoughtful  writers  of  an  interesting 
volume  entitled  '  The  Unseen  Universe/  resort  indeed, 
in  the  search  for  something  which  may  avert  such  a 
catastrophe,  to  the  hypothesis  of  an  invisible  order  of 
things,  'in  which  we  may  find  the  origin  of  the  molecules 
of  the  visible  Universe,'  and  also  the  '  explanation  of  the 
forces  which  animate  these  molecules,'  an  unseen  universe 
'intimately  connected  with'  the  visible  world,  'connected 
by  bonds  of  energy  with  it,'  originally  imparting  energy 
to  it,  '  also  capable  of  receiving  energy  from  it,  and  of 
transforming  the  energy  so  received.'  But  inasmuch 
as  the  authors  themselves  admit,  nay  assert,  that  this 
unseen  universe  is  itself  not  only  created  but  material, 
we  do  not  see  that  anything  is  gained.  The  line  of 
sight  of  our  present  human  powers  of  sense,  is  an 
insufficient  ground  on  which  to  base  a  difference  as  of 

I  2 


1 1 6  and  also  its  contimial  development.        [lect. 

kind  between  what  we  now  can  see,  and  what,  still 
material,  is  too  subtle  and  ethereal  for  us  to  see.  It 
is  more  philosophical  to  assume  the  real  continuity  of 
the  Created  Universe  as  it  is  on  either  side  of  our  hne 
of  sight,  especially  since  an  interchange  of  energy  is 
expressly  admitted,  and  the  great  principle  of  conti- 
nuity throughout  all  that  is  on  our  side  of  that  line, — 
'  that  principle  which  has  been  the  guide  of  all  modern 
scientific  advance^  {Unseen  Universe,  Preface),  is  ear- 
nestly contended  for  by  these  writers.  Indeed,  at  the 
close  of  their  First  Chapter  (^  49)  they  tell  us  they 
agree  in  the  position  which  looks  upon  the  invisible 
world  not  as  something  absolutely  distinct  from  the 
visible  universe,  and  absolutely  unconnected  with  it, 
as  is  frequently  thought  to  be  the  case,  but  rather  as 
a  universe  which  has  some  bond  of  union  with  the 
present.  Christian  thinkers  have  always  believed  that 
the  whole  created  universe,  invisible  and  visible,  ani- 
mated or  inanimate,  depends  absolutely  for  its  existence, 
from  moment  to  moment,  on  the  upholding  will  of  God, 
on  the  immanent  spiritual  presence  throughout  it  of 
Him  in  Wliom  are  all  things.  May  they  not  add  to 
this  the  further  thought,  that  in  the  permanence  of  the 
Incarnation,  in  the  everlasting  association  of  the  Son 
of  God  with  the  whole  nature  of  man,  in  its  visible  and 
invisible  elements  alike ;  and  so  with  that  material  sys- 
tem of  things  of  which  man  is  the  crown  and  sum,  we 
have  the  sure  promise  of  the  everlasting  continuance, 
and  (may  we  not  add  X)  of  the  progressive  development, 
'pari  ^assu  with  the  development  of  man,  of  the  mate- 
rial system  of  thmgs  which  is  the  home  and  habitation 


ITI.]       Scripttire  initmations  of  wider  Purpose.       117 

of  intelligent  life,  and  of  which  man  is  a  part ;  and 
which  he  needs,  and  will  continue  to  need,  as  the  object 
of  his  reverent  study,  and  the  theatre  of  his  consum- 
mated powers  %  In  the  securing  of  this  we  may  guess 
a  reason  for  the  Incarnation  apart  from  man's  need  of 
deliverance  from  sin. 

Grounding,  then,  our  reverent  thought  on  so  high 
mysteries  on  the  facts  of  the  Kevelation  contained  in 
Holy  Scripture,  we  can  see  reasons  why  we  may,  at 
least  permissibly,  believe  that  the  perfect  redemption 
of  fallen  man  and  of  his  dwelling-place  by  means  of  the 
Incarnation,  was  part  of  a  larger  purpose  which,  per- 
fectly and  wonderfully,  effected  that  and  much  more 
besides. 

62.  It  does  not  therefore  surprise  us  to  read  in  the 
introduction  of  that  one  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  from  which 
personal  salutations  are  absent,  which  was  circular  and 
general  in  its  character,  and  so  dealt  with  the  great 
truths  of  Christianitv  on  a  higfher  level  and  in  a  more 
abstract  way  of  statement  than  others,  that  part  of 
what  God  has  made  known  to  us  Christians  of  the 
mystery  of  His  Will  is  this,  That  according  to  His  good 
pleasure  which  He  jourposed  in  Christ,  He  should,  in  the 
dis])ensation  of  the  fulness  of  the  times,  sum  up  (or  gather 
together)  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  the  things  in  the 
heavens  and  the  things  upon  the  earth,  even  in  Him 
{Ephes.  i.  9). 

Neither,  again,  do  we  wonder  that  in  another  epis- 
tle, addressed  to  a  Church  which  was  troubled  by  the 
speculations  of  a  false  and  whimsical  philosophy  (the 
earlier  form  of  Gnosticism),  he  should  insert  a  few  words 


ii8     GocTs  tiltiinate  and  all-inclusive  Purpose,    [lect. 

to  maintain  the  supreme  and  unique  position  of  the 
Christ  as  the  sole  Mediator  between  the  Creator  and 
the  created  world,  the  Agent  through  Whom  it  ori- 
ginally came  into  being,  the  Life  by  Whom  all  things 
consist,  the  abiding,  and  the  sole  and  sufficient  link 
between  it  and  God ;  For  it  was  the  good  pleasure  of 
the  Father  that  in  Him  should  all  the  fulness  dwell,  and 
through  Him  to  reconcile  all  things  unto  Himself,  having 
made  i^eace  through  the  hlood  of  His  cross :  through  Him, 
I  say,  whether  things  u^on  the  earth  or  things  in  the 
heavens  {Coloss.  i.  19). 

63.  Of  the  ultimate  and  all-inclusive  purpose  of  God 
in  creation  we  can  only  say  that  it  was  for  His  own 
glory,  for  the  Manifestation  of  Himself;  not  to  Him- 
self, for  that  already  was,  in  His  eternal  ideal  Thought 
as  permanently  subsisting  in  His  Eternal  Son,  the  ade- 
quate Expression  of  Himself  in  Himself,  (i.e.  in  His 
Divine  Essence),  and  containing  in  Himself  all  the  po- 
tentialities of  Creation.  Not  to  Himself  therefore  would 
God  manifest  Himself  in  Creation,  but  to  created  in- 
telligences who,  through  His  Son,  should  know  Him, 
and  love  Him,  and  glorify  Him,  to  their  own  unspeak- 
able happiness  at  the  same  time.  God's  all-inclusive 
purpose  includes  a  benevolent  purpose  towards  His 
rational  and  conscious  creatures,  but  is  not  merely 
identical  with  it.  It  includes  it,  and  transcends  it. 
Our  first  thought  here  must  be  The  Lord  hath  made  all 
things  for  Himself  {Proverhs  xvi.  4),  not  merely  for  the 
happiness  of  the  creature  independently  of  moral  be- 
haviour ;  but,  foreseeing  that,  as  a  fact,  the  moral  Hfe, 
and  consequent   happiness,   of  any   must    involve  the 


III.]       Creation,  of  itself,  necessarily  imperfect,       119 

freedom  of  the  will  of  all,  and  the  abuse  of  that  free- 
dom by  some  ;  and  yet,  notwithstandmg  such  propor- 
tion (whatever  it  be)  of  loss,  impelled  to  create  by  some 
preponderating  motive,  against  which  such  loss  could 
not  be  weighed.  We  are  sure  that  that  motive,  and 
the  methods  of  its  ultimate  perfect  realization,  are 
altogether  holy  and  just  and  good,  and  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  nature  and  character  of  Him  whose 
very  being  is  love.  This  thought  human  reason  can 
pursue  no  further,  nor  remove,  though  it  feels,  the 
difficulties  that  surround  it.  We  bow  the  head  before 
them ;  but  in  unshaken  faith  in  the  righteousness  and 
in  the  love  of  God.  Clouds  and  darkness  are  round 
about  Him — yet  righteousness,  we  are  sure,  and  judg- 
ment are  the  foundation  of  His  Thro7ie  {Psalm  xcvii.  2), 
and  His  tender  mercies  are  over  all  His  works  (Psalm 
cxlv.  9). 

But  if  there  be  a  purpose  of  God — the  Manifestation 
of  Himself  and  of  the  resources  of  His  Being,  for  His 
own  glory — beyond,  though  including  the  happiness 
of  the  creature ;  —  that  purpose  itself  the  product  of 
an  overruling  necessity  within  the  Being  and  Will 
of  God,  i.e.  arising  from  His  very  Being  and  Character, 
whereby  He  is  a  Law  unto  Himself — then  such  all- 
inclusive  purpose  may  well  have  included,  as  a  necessary 
part  of  it,  His  personal  conjunction  with  His  own  Creation. 

For  it  is  only  in  the  Incarnation  that  the  perfection 
of  Creation  is  attained.  Creation,  in  itself,  apart  from 
God,  is  necessarily  finite.  Not  in  its  highest  individual 
reach,  not  in  its  aggregate  totality,  can  it  be  otherwise, 
as  instanced  in  the  furthest  future  developments  of  the 


1 20   and  only  perfected  throngh  the  Incarnation,  [lect. 

very  highest  created  life  ;  for  at  whatever  future  stage 
of  even  a  conceivably  endless  progress,  it  is  still,  by 
the   very  law   of  its   being,  finite,   and   so    defective. 
Hence   it  is  necessarily  imperfect ;    regarded  in  itself 
it  must  ever  be  inadequate  as  an  expression  of  either 
God's   Power  or  Love,  or  as  a  manifestation  of  His 
Character.      There   is    no    other   conceivable   way   in 
which  this  otherwise  eternally  insoluble  difficulty  could 
be  got  over  but  by  the  Incarnation.     An  indefinite  and 
eternal  progress  of  the  creature  towards  God  (which 
is  probable),  would,  even  if  such  a  progress  were  con- 
ceivable (which,  perhaps,  it  is  not)  without  the  Son  of 
God  and  His  Incarnation  as  its  means,  still  leave  the 
creature  at  an  infinite  distance  from  God,  and  without 
an  ideal  Pattern  after  which  its  progress  should  move. 
The  Son  of  God,  as  Incarnate,  completes  and  crowns 
creation ;  removes  its  inherent  defect ;   makes  it  per- 
fect, and  that  beyond  aU  thought,  and  in  such  wise  that 
nothing  could  conceivably  be  added  to  the  glory  of  its 
quality,  as  it  is  in  Him  its  Head.    The  work  so  finished 
is    indeed   worthy   of    God.     Without    this    supreme 
thought  all  conceptions  of  nature  and  of  God  must  be 
comparatively  unworthy  and  insufficient.    Without  this 
thought  they  cannot  be,  in  the  true  deep  sense  of  the 
word,  'religious.'     That  thought  alone  binds  man  to 
God.     To  have  given  that  thought  to   man,  realized 
absolutely  and  literally  in  outer  visible  historic  fact, 
this  is  the  crowning  glory  of  Christianity,  which  is 
therefore  '  the  One  Keligion.' 

Compare  Liddon,  Hampton   Lectures,  V.    p.  396,   on 
the  relation  of  the  Incarnation  to  Creation :    '  Between 


III.]     Creation  and  Incarnation  not  contradictory.    1 2 1 

the  processes  of  Creation  and  Incarnation  there  is  no 
necessary  contradiction  in  Divine  revelation,  such  as  is 
presumed  to  exist  by  certain  Pantheistic  thinkers.  The 
Self-incarnatinf^  Being-  creates  the  form  in  which  He 
manifests  Himself  simultaneously  with  the  act  of  His 
Self-manifestation.  Doubtless  when  we  say  that  God 
creates,  we  imply  tliat  He  g-ives  existence  to  something* 
other  than  Himself.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain 
that  He  does  in  a  real  sense  Himself  exist  in  each  object 
which  He  creates.  He  is  in  every  such  object  the  con- 
stitutive, sustaining,  binding*  force  which  perpetuates  its 
being".  Thus  in  various  degrees  the  creatures  are  temples 
and  organs  of  the  indwelling  Presence  of  the  Creator, 
although  in  His  essence  He  is  infinitely  removed  from 
them.  If  this  is  true  of  the  irrational  and,  in  a  lower 
measure,  even  of  the  inanimate  creatures,  much  more  is 
it  true  of  the  family  of  man,  and  of  each  member  of  that 
family.  In  vast  inorganic  masses  God  discovers  Himself 
as  the  supreme,  creative,  sustaining  force.  In  the  gra- 
duated orders  of  vital  power  which  range  throi;gliout  the 
animal  and  vegetable  worlds,  God  unveils  His  activity  as 
the  fountain  of  all  life.  In  man,  a  creature  exercising 
conscious  reflective  thought  and  free  self-determining 
will,  God  proclaims  Himself  a  free  intelligent  agent. 
Man  indeed  may,  if  he  will,  reveal  much  more  than  this 
of  the  glory  of  God :  he  may  shed  forth  by  the  free 
movement  of  his  will,  rays  of  God's  moral  glory,  of  love, 
of  mercy,  of  purity,  of  justice.  But  whether  each  man 
will  make  this  higher  revelation  depends  not  upon  the 
necessary  constitution  of  his  nature,  but  upon  the  free 
co-operation  of  his  will  with  the  designs  of  God.  God 
however  is  obviously  able  to  create  a  being  wlio  will 
reveal  Him  perfectly  and  of  necessity,  as  expressing  Hi>> 
perfect  image  and  likeness  before  His  creatures.  All 
nature  points  to  such  a  being  as  its  climax  and  con- 
summation. And  such  a  Being  is  the  Archetypal  INTan- 
hood  assumed  by  the  Eternal  Word.  It  is  the  climax 
of  God's  Creation  ;   it  is  the  climax  also  of  God's  Self- 


122  The  Inca7'nation  meets  and  satisfies       [lect. 

revelation.  At  this  point  God's  creative  activity  becomes 
entirely  one  with  His  Self-revealing"  activity.  The  Sacred 
Manhood  is  a  creature,  yet  it  is  indissolubly  united  to 
the  Eternal  Word.  It  differs  from  every  other  created 
being",  in  that  God  personally  tenants  It.  So  far  then 
are  Incarnation  and  Creation  from  being"  antagonistic 
conceptions  of  the  activity  of  God,  that  the  Absolutely 
Perfect  Creature  only  exists  as  a  perfect  reflection  of  the 
Divine  g'lory.  In  the  Incarnation  God  creates  only  to 
reveal,  and  He  reveals  perfectly  by  that  which  He 
creates.  '  The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  amono- 
us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory.' 

64.  Before  we  leave  this  part  of  our  subject  it  may 
be  well  to  point  out  that  the  Incarnation  of  God  does, 
as  a  fact,  correspond  to  and  satisfy,  to  the  fullest 
conceivable  degree,  that  instinctive  and  true  feeling  of 
the  universality  of  God,  and  of  His  close  presence 
with  Nature  and  with  Man,  which  earnest  thought  on 
God,  and  on  the  mystery  of  Creation  and  of  Life,  has 
always  exhibited  ;  and  of  which  Pantheistic  speculation 
in  its  various  forms,  all  agreeing,  however,  in  this 
fundamental  thought,  is  the  blind  and  groping  ex- 
pression. 

In  the  midst  of,  and  underlying,  grossly  polytheistic 
forms  of  behefand  practice,  the  esoteric  thought  of  serious 
thinkers  about  God  has  ever  realized  and  dwelt  upon 
His  immensity,  His  universality.  His  all-embracing  in- 
finity, His  sole  Self-Existence,  His  sole  Eternal  Exist- 
ence, alone  and  apart  from  space  and  time.  His  sole 
inexhaustible  self-originated  Life,  His  sole  origination 
and  maintenance  of  the  life  of  all  that  lives.  His  im- 
manent Presence,  in,  behind,  and  underneath,  as  the 
very  condition  of  its  existence,  to  all  else  that  is,  visible 


III.]      the  true  elements  in  Pantheistic  thought,       123 

and  invisible.  The  thought  that  in  Kim  we  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  heing,  because  ive  are  His  offspring, 
was  one  that  rose  naturally  to  the  lips  of  a  sjjeaker, 
thoughtful  and  educated  as  well  as  inspired,  when,  in 
the  then  world's  intellectual  centre,  he  addressed  the 
educated  representatives  of  Greek  culture  and  philosophy 
{Acts  xvii.  28).  It  was  a  true  thought,  though  it  was  a 
thought  which  was  theirs  as  well  as  his;  for  which  reason 
he  recalled  them  to  it.  It  would  find  an  echo  in  the 
minds  of  the  Epicureans  and  Stoics  who  encountered 
Paul,  and  who  would  be  struck  by  the  Jewish  speaker's 
reminder  of  its  occurrence  in  Greek  poets  of  their  own, 
like  Aratus  and  Cleanthes,  whom  he  showed  to  be  part 
of  his  intellectual  heritage  as  of  theirs.  It  is  a  deeply 
true  thought,  and,  as  such,  is  an  essential  part  of 
Christian  thought  about  God  and  His  relation  to  the 
Universe  and  to  Man,  though  it  be  (so  to  say)  only  a 
truth  about  His  natural  relation  to  them  (see  Dean 
Plumptre  on  Acts  xvii.  in  Bishop  Ellicott's  N,  T.  Com- 
mentary for  English  readers).  But  when  we  reflect 
how  much  more  clearly  defined  a  meaning  it  has,  and 
of  how  much  closer  and  more  intimate  a  relation  it 
speaks,  to  the  fully  trained  ear  of  Christian  Faith,  and 
to  the  soul  that  embraces  with  thoughtful  loving  ac- 
ceptance the  glorious  truths  of  the  Trinity  and  the 
Incarnation,  we  see  another  proof  and  example  of  the 
perfect  coherence  and  consistency  and  continuity  of  the 
fully-apprehended  Christian  Hevelation  with  the  highest 
and  best  natural  thought  of  man  about  God ;  we  mark 
another  example  how  the  added  light  of  the  Christian 
Hevelation  throws  a  brighter  and  intenser  glory  about 


124     God  is  hi  Creation,  and  in  Man,  throngh     [lect. 

those  earlier  known  verities  which  formed  the  best 
part,  the  true  part,  of  previous  Reh'gions,  Jewish  or 
Heathen. 

If  in  God  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  heing,  we 
Christians  know  more  particularly  tliat  it  is  in  and 
through  the  Eternal  Son  of  God ;  through  Whom  the 
original  life  of  the  Living  God  has  come  forth  upon 
Creation,  and  in  Whom  all  creation  consists  ;  and  this 
is  a  general,  and,  so  to  call  it,  a  natural  truth.  But 
we  further  believe,  that,  through  the  Incarnation  of  the 
Son,  Who  has  thereby  become  the  heginning  of  the 
Second,  the  New,  Creation,  (which  the  Father  willed  to 
bring  about  within  (as  it  were)  and  above  the  first, 
the  old,  the  natural,  creation),  a  still  closer  bond  than 
could  exist  before  has  been  formed  between  God  and 
the  Creature,  a  bond  involving  their  personal  conjunc- 
tion, and  that  for  ever.  We  believe  that  through  that 
bond  there  is  a  closer  Presence  in  man  (not  in  all,  not 
in  man  as  man,  but  in  the  believing,  baptized,  and 
regenerate)  of  the  Divine  Spirit — an  indwelling,  in  his 
heart  and  mind,  and  affections,  in  his  whole  nature,  of 
God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  and  further  we 
believe  also  that  this  is  the  cause  and  secret  of  man's 
true  life,  and  the  pledge  of  its  endless  continuance  in 
progressive  development.  Believing  this  we  believe 
what  is  ])erfectly  consistent  with  the  lesser,  earlier,  more 
natural  truth,  which  is  true  of  the  life  of  all,  that  in 
God,  whose  offsjmng  all  men  are,  as  men,  ive  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  heing  naturally.  Nay,  we  are  as- 
sured that,  believing  thus,  we  believe  what  any  who 
accept  and  reflect  on  that  simpler  truth  should  have  no 


III.]  His  Son.    Pantheism  is  congenial  to  125 

difficulty  in  accepting  also  as  antecedently  probable ; 
considering  the  power  and  the  love  of  God,  or  the 
preciousness  in  His  sight  of  His  creature  man,  and  the 
marvellous  capacities  of  human  nature,  in  thought  and 
spirit,  when  living,  as  it  was  meant  to  do,  in  God,  by 
God,  for  God. 

For  want  of  the  -restraining  guidance  of  a  true 
religion,  men  to  whom  these  thoughts  of  the  nearness 
of  God  to  Man  and  to  all  that  is,  have  come  home, 
as  flowing  from  any  worthy,  even  natural,  thought 
about  God  and  Nature,  have  thrown  them,  sometimes 
(not  always),  into  a  pantheistic,  and  so  untrue  and 
dangerous  form  and  connection ;  when  they  have  so 
dwelt  on  the  universal,  ever  and  everywhere,  present 
immanence  of  God  in  Nature  and  in  Man  as  to  identify 
and  confound  God  with  Creation ;  to  the  loss  of  the 
overpowering  and  controlling  thought  of  His  awful  and 
transcendent  Personality,  and  of  the  absolute  incompre- 
hensible, purely  spiritual,  nature  of  His  Supreme  Es- 
sence and  Being.  Such  a  system  is  clearly  atheistic. 
An  impersonal  God  is  no  God  at  aU.  The  very  con- 
ception of  such  a  God  is  to  us  impossible,  any  true 
sense  of  the  word  '  God '  being  maintained.  And  our 
consciousness,  witnessing  to  an  inalienable,  and,  as  we 
instinctively  feel,  an  indestructible  personality,  wit- 
nesses against  such  an  endeavour  as  indeed  absurd  and 
irrational.  For  irrational  it  must  needs  be  to  claim 
a  separate  personality  for  ourselves,  each  in  our  several 
individuaUty,  and  deny  it,  except  in  a  collective  and 
unreal  sense,  to  the  Supreme. 

65.  Yet  it  is  not  unnatural.     It  may  be  accounted 


126  Mali s  natural  thought  about  God.         [lect. 

for.  Indeed,  a  close  and  vivid  apprehension  of  the 
nearness  of  God  to  every  one  of  us,  as  the  necessary 
substratum  of  our  own  being,  and  of  our  consequent  ab- 
solute dependence  on  Him,  must  (unless  we  can  feel  that 
we  can  be  at  peace  with  Him,  can  be  sure  that  He  loves 
us,  and  so  be  drawn  to  love  Him  in  return)  overpower 
us  by  its  very  awfulness.  For,  rightly  understood,  it 
carries  with  it  the  tremendous  thought  of  a  Supreme 
Personality  that  enfolds  us  in  its  inevitable  grasp  ;  the 
thought  of  One  Who  is  ahout  our  jpath  and  about  our 
heel,  and  s^pieth  out  all  our  ivays,  of  One  from  Whom 
there  is  no  escape,  now  or  hereafter,  One  to  Whom 
we  are  responsible,  One  Who  is  over  us,  above  us, 
distinct  from  us,  One  Who  is  our  Judge. 

It  is  a  way  of  escape  from  this  thought,  so  oppressive 
to  the  natural  mind,  to  welcome  the  suggestion  that 
God,  in  Whom  we  are  and  Who  is  in  us,  is  not  distinct 
from  ourselves ;  that  we  and  all  that  is,  visible  and 
invisible,  material  and  immaterial,  are  God,  and  God 
is  all  that  is,  and  only  that ;  that  He  (if  we  should  not 
rather  say  It)  is  the  soul  and  life  of  the  visible  universe, 
which  is  (as  it  were)  His  body ;  that  He  is  personal,  if 
at  all,  only  in  us  who  are  personal ;  if  we  indeed  are  so 
ourselves,  if  indeed  we  be  not  mere  foam-bubbles  on 
the  surface  of  an  infinite  and  eternal  ocean  of  life,  from 
whose  heaving  bosom  we  flash  up  into  a  momentary 
existence  of  our  own,  only  to  be  reabsorbed  and  merged 
again  for  ever.  Such  a  thought  of  God,  if  the  word  is 
not  to  be  avowedly  parted  with,  is  tolerable  to  the 
natural  and  unregenerate  mind,  if  it  speculates  at  all 
on  subjects  so  mighty.    But  to  the  mind  that  knows  not 


III.]  Only  in  Christ  can  Man  dear  the  nearness  of  God,  127 

God  in  Christ,  as  the  Lover  and  Eedeemer  of  sinners, 
and  as,  in  Christ,  a  reconciled  and  loving  Father  ;  to  the 
mind  whose  thoughts,  desires,  and  aspirations  are  con- 
fined within  the  limits  of  the  present  and  the  visible, 
and  which  is  really  self-centred  the  while,  and  conscious 
of  that  within  on  which  God  cannot  look  with  favour ; 
the  thought  of  the  ever-present  Personality  of  the  living 
God,  is  and  must  be,  unwelcome,  nay,  intolerable. 
Man  cannot  know  God  unless  he  at  least  wills  to  know 
Him.  He  will  put  Him  from  him.  He  will  substitute 
for  Him  any  vain  self-created  imagination,  any  idolum 
specih  of  his  own.  He  will  speak  of  an  anima  mundi, 
an  all-pervading  substance,  an  infinite  life,  or  *  force,* 
a  *  stream  of  tendency,'  an  '  unknown  God,'  but  not  of 
a  living  personal  God,  Whom  man  can  know  as  an  ever 
present  Friend,  in  Whom  man  can  trust,  with  Whom 
man  can  walk,  and  that  joyfully  and  securely,  amid 
the  trials  and  the  sometimes  darkness,  of  this  present 
life,  on  Whom  man  can  lean  when  Jlesh  and  heart  fail, 
because  He  is  spiritually  known  and  experimentally 
felt  to  be  the  strength  of  his  heart,  and  his  ^otiion  for 
ever  [Psalm  Ixxiii.  25.) 

66.  It  is  only  in  Christ  that  man  can  realize,  or 
endure  when  he  has  realized,  the  thought  of  the  inti- 
mate nearness  of  God.  All  pantheistic  systems  begin 
with  that;  but  they  end  by,  practically,  if  not  in  terms, 
denying  God,  or  reducing  Him  to  a  mere  Idea  or  ab- 
straction. Through  the  Incarnation,  and  through  the 
extension  of  the  Incarnation  through  the  Sacraments, 
the  nearness  of  God  to  man  is  realized  in  a  height  of 
verity  and   fulness,  inconceivable   before   and   unima- 


128       being  tmited  to  God  witJiout  absorption,  [lect. 

gined  ;  so  that  men  may  become  fartahers  of  the  divine 
nature  (2  St.  Peter  i.  4),  even  as  God  became  partaker 
of  human  nature ;  and,  being  '  knit  together  in  one 
communion  and  fellowship  in  the  mystical  body  of 
God's  Son  Christ  our  Lord,'  may  be  one  in  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  even  as  the  Father  is  in  the  Son  and  the 
Son  in  the  Father  {St.  John  xvii.  21-23).  ^^  the 
strength  of  this  faith  the  Christian  can  say,  /  am  per- 
suaded that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  prin- 
cipalities, nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall 
he  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  {Bom.  viii.  38,  39.) 

And  this  inseparable  love  is  no  absorption.  It  is  no 
merging  of  individual  being  in  an  ocean,  even  of  love. 
Rather  the  very  joy  of  it,  the  secret  of  the  Lord  which 
is  with  them  that  fear  Him  {Psahn  xxv.  14),  is  the  sense 
of  a  conscious  personal  grasp  of  a  Person,  the  answer  of 
heart  to  heart,  the  Divine  to  the  deepest  needs  of  the 
Human,  the  human  to  the  overflowuig  fulness  of  the 
Divine  ;  the  sense  of  being  individually  loved  by  One 
of  Whom  each  can  say.  He  loved  me  and  gave  Himself 
for  me  {Gal.  ii.  20),  the  joy  of  self- surrendering  love  to 
Him,  of  unreserved  sacrifice  of  the  will,  itself  intensely 
realized  in  its  individual  self-ness,  to  the  Will  of  Him 
Who  made  us  for  Himself,  that  from  us  He  might  enjoy 
the  love  of  hearts  that  love  Him  with  a  willing  con- 
scious love,  and  so  grow  continually  into  the  likeness  of 
Him,  and  so  into  fuller  life. 

67.  The  very  thought  of  such  a  perfectibility  of 
man's  nature  had  not  come  to  man  save  through  that 


III.]        Unsatisfying  hopelessness  of  Pantheism.        1 29 
Incarnation   throuo-h   wliicli   alone  it  can  be   realized. 

o 

But  in  the  thought  of  it,  and  in  the  sole  conceivable 
realization  of  it,  under  any  circumstances,  through  the 
intimate  union  rendered  possible  by  the  Incarnation, 
we  may  see  at  once  some  reason  for  believing  that  the 
Incarnation  would,  even  apart  from  the  entrance  of  sin 
and  evil  into  the  Universe,  have  taken  place,  as  the 
one  means  to  the  highest  perfection  of  the  Creature, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  more  than  satisfaction  of 
that  instinct  which  has  expressed  itself  among  all  think- 
ing races  of  mankind  in  the  varied  forms  of  Pantheistic 
speculation.  We  see  in  the  Incarnation  the  satisfaction 
of  the  portions  of  truth  which  may  be  traced  in  these 
speculations,  and  which  have  given  them  their  vitality, 
without  that  accompanying  denial  of  all  beyond  the 
visible,  that  rejection  of  any  individual  future  life,  which, 
in  so  many  systems,  have  bounded  human  life  at  either 
end  by  an  impenetrable  wall  of  blank  non-entity,  and 
reduced  that  human  life  itself,  as  men  and  women  know 
it,  to  what,  if  it  were  not  too  seriously  painful,  would 
be  ridiculous  and  grotesque,  a  life  without  sense  or 
meaning  or  object  or  explanation  ;  a  life  in  the  observa- 
tion of  which  the  bystanding  cynic  might  amuse  himself 
so  long  as  health  and  sunshine  lasted,  but  in  which  no 
thoughtful  man  could,  after  its  first  fresh  years  of 
novelty  were  over,  find  any  pleasure  ;  a  life  from  which, 
when  its  spring  was  gone,  and  its  brightness  had  laded, 
the  speediest  exit  were  the  thing  most  to  be  desired, 
for  it  must  be  necessarily  a  life  without  hope. 

It  was  Schopenhauer's  exclamation,  '  What !  this  world 
the  work   of  a  God?    Nay,  rather  of  a  devil.'     Ou  the 
K 


130       Unsatisfying  hopelessness  of  Pantheism. 

other  hand,  F.  H.  Jacobi,  whose  religion  was  mere 
natural  Theism  without  a  Mediator,  '  My  watchword  and 
that  of  my  reason  is  not  my  Ego,  but  one  Who  is  more 
than  I,  Who  is  better  than  I,  one  Who  is  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  me,  namely,  God.  I  neither  am,  nor  care  to 
be,  if  He  is  not.'     {Sendschreihen  an  Fichte.) 

On  the  subject  of  Sections  6'^-66,  the  student  will 
find  much  that  is  valuable  in  Dr.  Mill's  work  on  The 
Mythical  Inter x>r elation  of  the  Gospels,  Part  I.  section  iv. — 
in  Martensen's  Christian  Dogmatics,  sections  37-45,  On 
the  Nature  of  God  (translated  in  Clark's  Foreign  Theo- 
logical Library) — in  Liddon's  Bampton  Lectures,  Lect. 
VIII.  I.  2,  On  belief  in  our  Saviour^s  Godhead  as  an 
'  effective  safeguard  against  Pantheism  ' — and  in  Ooster- 
zee's  Christian  Dogmatics  (Hodder  and  Houghton,  i^74)j 
Section  xlv.  a.  The  Idea  of  God,  and  Section  xlviii,  God''s 
mode  of  existence. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE   PREPARATION   FOR  THE   INCARNATION: 
THE   THEOPHANIES. 

Genesis  xxviii.  12.  And  he  dreamed,  and  behold,  a  hidder  set 
up  on  the  earth,  and  the  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven :  and 
behold,  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  it. 
And,  behold,  the  Lord  stood  above  it,  and  said,  I  am  the 
God   of  Abraham  thy  father,  and  the  God  of  Isaac  .... 
17.  And  he  was  afraid,  and  said.  How  dreadful  is  this  place ! 
this  is  none  other  but  the  House  of  God  ....  19.  And  he 
called  the  name  of  that  place  Beth-el. 
Genesis  xxxi.  1 1 .  And  the  Angel  of  God  spake  unto  me  in  a 
dream,  saying,   Jacob :   And  I  said.  Here  am  I.     And  he 
said,  I  am  the  God  of  Beth-el. 
Genesis  xxxii.  24.  And  Jacob  was  left  alone  ;  and  there  wrestled 
a  man  with  him  until  the  breaking  of  the  day  ....  30.  And 
Jacob  called  the  name  of  the  place  Peniel :  for  I  have  seen 
God  face  to  face,  and  my  life  is  preserved. 
Genesis  xlviii.  15.  And  he  blessed  Joseph  and  said,  God,  before 
Whom  my  fathers  Abraham  and  Isaac  did  walk,  the  God 
which  fed  me  all  my  life  long  unto   this   day,  the  Angel 
which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads. 
HosEA  xii.  3.      By  his  strength  he  had  power  with  God ; 

Yea,  he  had  power  over  the  Angel,  and  prevailed ; 
He  wept  and  made  supplication  unto  Him  : 
He  found  him  in  Beth-el,  and  there  He  spake 

with  us; 
Even  the  Lord   God   of  Hosts ; — the  Loud  is 
His  memorial. 

K  2 


132  The  Long  Preparation  [lect. 

Isaiah  Ixiii.  9.  In  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted. 

And  the  Angel  of  His  Face  saved  them: 
In  His  love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them ; 
And   He   bare  them  and  carried  them   all  the 
days  of  old. 

68.  That  so  great  an  event  as  the  Incarnation  of 
God,  an  event  than  which  nothing  can  be  conceived 
greater,  whether  in  itself  or  in  its  possible  conse- 
quences, should  be  preceded  by  a  prolonged  and  mani- 
fold Preparation  is  only  what  must  naturally  be  ex- 
pected. We  are  accustomed  to  dwell  much  on  certain 
features  of  that  manifold  Preparation,  such,  for  example, 
as  Prophecy  and  Promise,  which,  dawning  in  the 
Frotevangelium  that  announced  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  the  Seed  of  the  woman,  was  repeated  and  expanded 
in  later  promises,  to  Abraham  and  the  Patriarchs,  and 
by  renewed  additions  and  developments  grew  fuller 
and  brighter  and  more  detailed,  up  to  the  close  of 
the  Old  Testament  Canon.  We  are  accustomed  also 
rightly  to  regard  the  whole  History  of  the  Chosen 
People,  their  peculiar  divinely -ordained  institutions, 
their  Priests,  their  Prophets,  their  Kings,  as  all  closely 
{,nd  pointedly  typical,  as  constituting,  indeed,  one 
great  Prophecy  in  act.  The  marvellous  correspondence 
which  the  instructed  Christian  traces  in  the  Person 
and  Life,  the  Offices  and  Work  of  Christ,  and  in  the 
History  of  His  Church,  to  this  great  pre-existing  sys- 
tem of  Prophecy  verbal  and  typical,  is  to  him  one  of 
the  strongest  proofs  of  the  truth  both  of  the  Christian 
Religion  and  of  its  original  records  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. He  sees  before  him  a  great  historical  phe- 
nomenon of  the  most  remarkable  and  influential  kind. 


IV.]  J  or  the  Incarnation,  133 

the  permanent  monuments  of  which,  as  a  whole,  and 
in  its  grand  outlines,  as  secured  in  the  Jewish  and 
Cliristian  Scriptures,  and  in  the  uninspired  history  of 
the  Jewish  People  alike  and  of  the  Christian,  are  far 
above  out  of  the  reach  of  any  hostile  criticism ;  a 
phenomenon  extending  over  many  centuries,  and  affect- 
ing, undoubtedly  for  good,  the  prominent  races  of  the 
world ;  a  phenomenon  of  which  no  reasonable  and 
sufficient  explanation  can  be  given  save  on  the  sup- 
position of  its  truth  and  reality,  its  supernatural  reality, 
as  a  mighty  result  of  a  Divine  Providence  ruling  man's 
destiny  and  man's  world.  And  further,  extending  his 
view  beyond  the  pale  of  express  covenants,  as  he  has 
been  taught  to  extend  it  by  many  Christian  writers, 
both  of  earlier  times,  as,  for  example,  the  great  repre- 
sentatives of  that  broad  philosophic  school  of  Christian 
thought  of  which  Alexandria  was  the  centre,  or,  in  our 
own  generation  and  country,  such  writers  as  Arch- 
deacon Hardwick  (in  his  Christ  and  other  Masters), 
Archbishop  Trench  (Hulsean  Lectures  of  1846),  and  the 
Bampton  Lecturer  of  last  year,  he  finds  among  Heathen 
Baces  of  all  ages  and  countries  yearnings  which  only 
the  Christian  Eeligion  can  satisfy,  ideas  which  it  alone 
can  realize,  thoughts,  practices,  expectations,  resting 
originally,  according  to  their  most  probable  explana- 
tion, on  traditional  remains  of  primeval  religion  and 
belief,  or  else  the  natural  growth  of  Humanity  as  it 

^  *  Sucli  thoughts,  the  wreck   of  Paradise, 

Through  many  a  dreary  age 
Upbore  whate'er  of  good  and  wise 
Yet  liv'd  in  bard  or  sage.' 

(Keble,  Christian  Year,  Trinity  IV.) 


134         io  which  all  previous  history  leads  up.  [lect. 

is  ;  but  which,  in  either  case,  point  to  Christianity  and 
to  nothing  else,  or  must  be  wholly  unaccountable.  In 
this  again  we  trace  an  over-ruling  influence  which  has 
never  deserted  the  human  race  in  even  its  furthest 
wanderings  from  the  Light  of  God.  We  see,  with  an 
enlarging  faith  and  hope  in  the  ultimate  destiny  of 
Man,  gracious  gleams  amid  the  deepest  darkness  ;  rays 
which  could  only  come  from  Him  Who  is  t\ie  True 
Liglit  ivhich,  coming  into  the  world,  lighteth  every  man; 
guidance  which  could  only  be  vouchsafed  by  Him  Who, 
in  His  love  and  in  His  ^ity,  was  in  the  world,  even  when 
the  world  knew  Him  not,  the  Eternal  Son  of  God. 

It  is  well  that  we  should  learn  thus  to  dwell  with 
deepest  interest  on  the  breadth  and  variety  of  the 
great  Preparation  for  the  universal,  the  everlasting 
Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  and  for  that 
supreme  crisis  in  its  development,  the  actual  Incarna- 
tion. It  is  well  that  we  should  fully  see  and  feel  how 
all  things  lead  up  to  that.  The  more  we  study  pre- 
vious History  in  the  light  of  so  great  a  thought,  the 
more  natural  (so  to  say)  and  probable  will  the  Incarna- 
tion itself  appear  to  us  to  be  ;  to  us,  and  indeed,  we 
must  think  to  any  who,  believing  in  an  intelligent  and 
loving  Creator  and  Father  of  our  race,  and  together 
with  any  worthy  conception  of  the  dignity  and  capaci- 
ties of  human  nature  combming  any  sufficient  know- 
ledge of  its  actual  condition,  its  wants,  its  misery,  its 
degradation,  are  compelled  perforce  to  conclude  that 
the  Almighty  must  care  for  us,  must  reveal  Himself 
to  us,  must  draw  us  towards  Himself. 

69.    Many    here    are    young,    and    therefore    inex- 


IV.]  Patience  needed  under  difficulties  as  to  Faith.   135 

perienced  ;  with  little  real  knowledge  yet  of  themselves 
or  of  the  world,  present  or  past,  Christian  or  Heathen. 
But  to  judge  of  the  questions  raised  in  our  day  as 
in  others,  in  this  place  as  elsewhere,  as  to  the  very 
fundamental  postulates  of  any  religious  belief,  requires 
a  very  wide  and  comprehensive  view  afield,  a  veiy 
close  and  candid  look  within ;  a  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  in  self  and  others,  which  only  a  larger  and 
fuller  experience  of  life  can  bring.  Believe  me,  the 
argument  for  or  against  Christianity,  for  or  against 
those  deep  common  moral  human  truths  about  God 
and  man  which  lie  at  its  base,  does  not  lie  in  a  nut- 
shell. Questions  about  them  can  in  no  wise  be  even 
understood  with  so  short  an  experience  as  yours ;  much 
less  can  they  be  determined  by  any  offhand  formula, 
however  apparently  clever.  In  this  matter  '  short 
methods'  are  of  no  avail :  and  a  wise  man,  in  the  face 
of  alleged  religious  difficulty,  w^ill  always  suspend  his 
judgment,  at  least  until  he  has  really  grasped  the  con- 
ditions of  the  problem. 

But  such  questions  will  press  for  an  answer.  Not 
perhaps  while  life  is  pleasant,  and  all  seems  bright  and 
fresh  before  you,  not  while  felt  health  and  strength  in 
body  and  mind  fill  men  with  suflS.cient  enjoyment  in 
mere  existence  and  in  the  natural  exercise  of  their 
powers  in  the  present,  and  with  buoyant  hope  for  the 
future,  a  future  which,  with  the  unlooked-for  changes, 
inward  and  outward,  which  it  will  assuredly  bring  to 
themselves  and  to  others,  they  cannot  as  yet  possibly 
realize  or  anticipate.  But  when  the  first  flush  and 
bloom    of   life    is   ovei',  and    men    have  learnt  bv  ex- 


136  Experience  of  life  sU^engthens  Faith,      [lect. 

perience  (by  which  alone  they  can  learn  them)  their 
weakness  as  well  as  their  strength,  their  needs  as  well 
as  their  powers,  their  dependence  as  well  as  their 
freedom ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  have  better  guessed 
the  possible  grandeur  of  their  nature  in  the  height  and 
depth  of  its  capacities  and  its  yearnings,  moral,  in- 
tellectual, spiritual,  in  its  sense  of  power  in  will,  in  its 
consciousness  of  an  ideal  for  which  it  feels  it  was  made, 
but  which  it  equally  feels  it  can  never  realize  within 
the  limits  of  this  present  life  ;  when,  on  a  fuller  view, 
for  good  and  evil,  of  the  lives  of  others,  it  may  be 
others  with  whom,  and  with  whose  welfare  and  destiny 
our  own  lives  are  bound  up,  there  comes  to  us  a 
humbler,  a  diviner  pity  for  human  nature  in  general, 
and  for  ourselves,  in  whom,  as  in  others,  the  wreck  we 
see,  and  the  misery  we  cannot  bear  to  think  of,  are  at 
least  possible,  tlien,  in  a  fitter  mood  to  sympathise  with 
God  Who  knows  it  all,  tlien,  with  a  larger  capacity  to 
understand  God's  ways — which  are  not  our  ways — 
men  come  to  feel  that,  after  all,  they  may  trust  Him, 
even  in  the  darkest  dark,  that  above  and  beyond  all 
difficulties  there  must  be,  after  all,  a  remedy  and  an 
explanation.  And  then  comes  back  the  faith,  full, 
strong,  impregnable,  that  the  human  misery  which  we 
know  to  be  real,  and  the  reach  and  capacity  of  im- 
mortal happiness  which  we  know  to  be  real  too,  even 
in  the  lowest  and  most  miserable,  must  have,  the  one  its 
sufficient  cure,  the  other  its  complete  realization,  here- 
after if  not  here  ;  both  alike  procured  and  ensured,  for  all 
who  do  not  put  them  from  them  and  destroy  their  own 
capacity  for  them,  by  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God. 


IV.]  The  Son  is  '  The  Life'  and  '  The  Truth'  to  all.  137 

70.  We  have  seen  that  all  God's  intelligent  creatures, 
ano^elic  as  well  as  human,  were  formed  not  onlv  to  live 
by  and  from  and  in  Him,  but  also  consciously  to  know 
Him,  to  love  Him,  to  worship  and  to  serve  Him ;  and 
all  these  in  an  ever-advancing  progress.  It  is  clearly 
revealed  that  the  life  of  all,  in  all  its  forms,  lower  or 
higher — that  life  which  is  in  them  the  present  energy 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  the  Life-giver — comes  to 
them  from  the  Eternal  Father,  the  Original  Source  of 
all  Life,  through  the  Eternal  Son;  Who  thus  bears,  and 
that  necessarily,  a  Mediatorial  character,  both  towards 
the  angelic  world,  and  also  towards  the  human  world, 
even  regarded  as  unfallen.     He  is  to  all  ihe  Life. 

But,  further,  to  all  God's  intelligent  creatures,  He  is 
also  tlie  Truth.  Their  intellectual  powers  and  their 
spiritual  perception  and  knowledge  are  alike,  we  have 
seen,  through  Him,  the  Word  and  Wisdom  of  the  Father, 
Whom  none  can  know  save  through  Him.  The  language 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  in  the  remarkable  Johannine 
passage  which  is  common  to  St.  Matthew  (xi.  27)  and 
St.  Luke  (x.  22),  is  as  express  on  this  point  as  that 
of  the  fourth  Evangelist.  No  one  (ovSeig)  knoiveth  the 
Son,  hut  the  Father  ;  neither  doth  any  know  the  Father, 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willefh  to 
reveal  Him.  Thus  that  None  comeih  unto  the  Father, 
hut  through  the  Son  is  a  necessary,  an  eternal  truth. 
Only  in  and  through  the  Son,  the  perfect  Image  of  the 
Father,  can  any  created  spirit  look  upon  the  Invisible 
Godhead,  or  learn  the  Nature,  the  Character,  and  the 
Love  of  Him  Who  divelleth  in  Light  una])]j)roachal)le 
(i  Tim.  vi.  16),  ^y^wm  no  man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see; 


138  The  Creator  of  Man  was  also  [lect. 

but  of  Whom  it  is  said,  lie  that  hath  seen  the  Son  hath 
seen  Him  (St.  John  xiv.  9),  for  the  Only-Begotten  Son, 
Which  is  in  the  hosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared 
Him  (i.  18). 

From  these  deep  and  universal  truths  it  follows  that 
from  his  first  Creation  Man  has  been  indebted  for  what- 
ever spiritual  knowledge  he  has  enjoyed,  in  whatever 
condition  of  being,  to  the  Mediation  of  the  Son  of  God. 

71.  In  Primeval  Man  we  contemplate  a  being  created 
indeed  in  the  image  of  God,  but  whose  likeness  to  God 
must  be  realized  by  probation  ;  created  in  grace,  and  en- 
dued with  Original  Kighteousness,  but  as  yet  inexperi- 
enced, untried,  and  with  all  his  development  before  him. 
Sin  and  the  experience  of  evil  were  no  necessary  steps 
in  that  development ;  though  the  possibility  of  them 
was.  But  we  believe  that  Man's  merciful  Creator  was 
also  his  Educator  from  the  first ;  and  that,  in  that 
closer  communion  w^hich  is  tlie  normal  state  of  man, 
and  which,  until  sin  entered  and  estrangement  from 
God  by  sin,  existed  in  the  primeval  state.  He  vouch- 
safed to  him  such  guidance  and  instruction,  such  a 
Bevelation  in  fact,  as  should  make  him  understand,  in 
its  essential  features,  his  position  in  Creation,  his  rela- 
tion to  other  creatures  and  to  the  world  around  him, 
and  to  Him  Who  made  him  and  them. 

Compare  Oosterzee,  Christian  Dogmatics,  §  Iviii.  p.  322. 
'  Even  a  priori  we  may  safely  assert  that  if  there  is  really 
a  God,  who  willed  to  he  known  and  worshipped  hy  men, 
He  must  beg-in  by  revealing-  Himself,  and  affording  them 
so  much  light  as  to  the  creation  of  the  world  as  was 
called  for  by  their  capacity  and  need.     For  he  who  wills 


IV.]  his  Educator  from  the  First.  139 

the  end  must  also  will  the  means;  and  this  law  has  its 
application  even  to  the  Supreme  Wisdom.  Knowledg-e 
touching  the  orig-in  of  things  was — as  the  foundation 
of  all  religion — indispensable ;  and  this  could  not  be 
attained  to  unless  it  were  furnished  by  Him.  In  what 
way  this  may  have  taken  place  is  a  question  which 
certainly  will  never  be  answered,  and  also  is,  in  a  certain 
res2)cct,  of  comparatively  small  importance.  Here  we 
are  concerned  with  the  great  principle,  and  that  prin- 
ciple can  be  rejected  only  where  one  no  longer  reserves  in 
his  thinking  a  place  for  a  personal  God,  and  a  direct 
community  between  Him  and  the  humanity  allied  to 
Him,  Not  a  little  combines  to  lead  us  to  conjecture 
that  in  the  first  age,  before  the  Fall,  this  communion  was 
mucli  more  intimate  than  in  after  ages;  and  the  religious 
faith  in  a  higher  education  of  humanity  leads  naturally 
to  the  conviction  that  the  highest  Educator  has  in  this 
respect  least  of  all  "  left  Himself  without  witness."  ' 

So  Bishop  Bull,  Vol.  II.  Disc.  V.  On  The  State  of 
3Ian  before  the  Tall,  '  It  is  apparent  from  the  account  of 
Moses,  that  the  first  man  in  the  state  of  integrity  was 
(as  we  have  heard  Tertullian  expressing  it)  Beo  de 
prox'wio  atuicus,  "  the  intimate  friend  of  God,"  that  he 
should  coelestia  portare^  "bear  heavenly  things,"  and 
sustain  the  approaches  of  the  shechinah,  or  majestic 
presence  of  God,  without  any  regret  or  starting  back  ; 
that  he  could  maintain  a  conference  or  discourse  with 
God  (as  we  have  heard  St.  Basil  speaking)  in  the  same 
tongue  or  language,  as  we  read  Gen.  ii,  15,  16,  19-23. 

It  is  likewise  evident  from  the  same  history  of 

Moses,  that  Adam  in  the  state  of  integrity  had  a  know- 
ledge of  certain  things  unaccountable  upon  any  other 
hypothesis  but  this,  that  his  mind  was  irradiated  with  a 
divine  illumination.' 

We  cannot  doubt  that  the  Mediator  of  this  Revela- 
tion was  the  Son  of  God  ;    nor  when,  before  or  after 


140  Primeval  Worship.  [lect. 

the  Fall,  we  read  of  interviews  of  the  Lord  God  with 
man,  and  of  the  Lord  God  loalking  in  the  garden  in 
the  cool  of  the  day,  can  our  thoughts  turn  to  any  other, 
or  refrain  from  picturing  a  visible,  and  if  so,  of  course 
a  human,  though  pre-eminently  glorious,  Form,  as  well 
as  an  audible   and  articulate  Voice  {Api^endix,  Note  6). 

72.  And  as  Man  received  from  God  manifested  to 
him  in  and  through  the  Son,  so  must  he  also  have  given 
back  to  God.  The  Head  and  Eepresentative  of  all 
life  below  his  own,  gifted  with  those  powers  of 
Thought  and  Speech,  of  Will  and  conscious  Love, 
which  should  qualify  him  to  be  the  Priest  of  this  lower 
world,  Man  was  the  mouthpiece  of  its  otherwise  dumb 
and  inarticulate  Worship,  the  link  and  the  expression 
of  its  allegiance  to  the  Almighty  Creator  of  all. 

What  was  the  outward  form  of  this  Worship  we  are 
not  told.  But  inasmuch  as  its  inner  essence  must 
necessarily  have  been  the  grateful  sacrifice  of  himself 
and  of  all  that  God  had  given  him,  so  it  is  not  in- 
conceivable that  some  oftering  of  the  fruit  of  the 
ground,  which  was  the  Almighty's  gift  to  him  as  the 
support  of  his  life,  may  have  been  the  ordained  and 
understood  form,  or  part  of  it,  of  its  outer  exhibition ; 
whether  we  do  or  do  not  suppose  the  unfaUen  life  to 
have  continued  for  a  space  sufficient  for  its  actual 
exercise.  Adam  in  Paradise,  like  Cain  afterwards,  was 
a  tiller  of  the  ground.  Cain's  offering  at  the  end  of 
days,  (an  expression  which  may  possibly  mean  on  the 
seventh  day,  tlie  liallowed  day  of  rest  from  the  Crea- 
tion,) may  very  naturally  have  been,  though  incomplete 
under  the  altered  circumstances,  the  continuation  of  a 


IV.]  The  Eiicharistic  Sacrifice.  141 

custom  which  did  not  originate  with  him — it  is  quite 
inconceivable  that  it  should  have  done  so,  or  within 
the  fallen  life  of  man — hut  mav  well  have  been  a  part 
of  the  religious  life  of  Paradise,  being  the  natural  and 
obvious  acknowledgment  from  him  who  was  placed 
there  to  till  the  ground  and  to  draw  the  sustenance  of 
his  life  from  its  produce.  Its  defect  would  seem 
to  have  been  the  absence  of  any  confession  of  sin, 
and  of  any  expression  of  faith  in  an  atonement  by 
blood  \ 

It  may  be  observed  here,  in  passing,  how  remarkably 
and  yet  how  simply,  and,  we  may  almost  say,  con- 
veniently, the  Christian  Offering  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
the  Eucharistic  Sacrifice,  combines  and  represents  both 
elements,  the  thank-offering,  for  natural  sustenance  (the 
'oblations'  of  the  Liturgy,  accompanying  the  oflPering 
of  our  substance  in  the  '  alms ')  and  the  sin-off'ering  of 
expiation  (in  the  '  perpetual  memory '  of  the  Sacrifice 
of  Christ).  These,  with  the  Offering  of  '  ourselves,  our 
souls  and  bodies,'  now  in  renewed  union  with  Christ,  as 
a  tfhole  hurnt-offeynng,  complete  the  idea  of  sacrifice. 
Thus  the  Service  of  the  Holy  Communion  includes  all 
the  essential  elements  of  Sacrificial  Worship,  as  it  has 
ever  existed,  in  whatever  varieties  of  form,  in  all  ages 
from  the  beginning,  whether  among  God's  chosen 
People,  or,  as  a  survival  by  tradition  from  primeval 
times,  among  Heathen  Kaces  also,  among  whom  the 
Offering  of  Bread  and  Wine  was  as  uniform  and  familiar 

'  See  MaccIoualJ,  Tnlroduction  to  the  Pentateuch,  Book  III.  Ch.  iii. 
Sect.  i.  I,  on  TJce  Oj/'erings  of  Cain  and  Abel. 


142        Entrance  of  Sin  into  Mans   World.       [lect, 

a  feature  of  Sacrifice  as  it  was  among  the  Jews  them- 
selves \ 

73.         '  Of  Man's  first  disobedience,  and  the  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree,' 

it  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  these  Lectures  to 
speak  particularly.  The  threat  was,  In  the  day  that 
thou  eatest  thereof,  dying  thou  shalt  die.  It  was  fulfilled. 
The  essence  of  Death  is  separation  from  God,  in  Whom 
alone  is  Life.  That  result  began  to  show  itself  in- 
stantly. The  working  out  of  the  sentence  in  its  full 
effects,  in  body  and  mind,  in  heart  and  affections,  in 
soul  and  spirit,  was  only  a  question  of  time.  All  is 
summed  up  in  the  first  utterance  of  fallen  Man,  I 
heard  TJiy  Voice  in  the  garden,  and  I  ivas  afraid  he- 
cause  I  was  nahed,  and  I  hid  myself.  Fear,  shame, 
estrangement,  had  already  taken  the  place  of  fihal 
confidence  and  love. 

But  evil  was  not  to  triumph.  God's  Purpose  in 
the  Creation  of  Man  and  Man's  World  was  not  to  be 
frustrated.  Delayed  it  might  be,  as  we  count  delay, 
by  the  intrusive  operation  of  a  rival  will ;  but  this 
downfall  was  to  be  so  marvellously  over-ruled  as  to 
give  occasion  to  a  still  greater  display  of  the  wisdom 
and  resources  of  God,  and  especially  of  His  Fatherly 
Character  of  Love,  in  a  future  New-Creation  which 
should  more  than  replace  the  lost  glories  of  the  old, 

^  On  this  point  the  student  may  he  referred  to  the  very  interesting 
and  valuable  passage  on  The  Universality  and  Uniformity  of  Sacrifice, 
in  Archdeacon  Freeman's  Prindjdes  of  Divine  Service,  Part.  II.  Ch.  i. 
Sect.  4. 


IV.]  Armouncement  of  the  Incarnation.  143 

recovering  Man  from  the  grasp  of  evil,  and  binding 
him  in  the  closest  conceivable  union  with  God,  and  so 
opening  up  to  him  once  more  the  path  to  the  highest 
blessedness  and  joy. 

As  the  first  consequence  of  the  changed  relation  of 
God  and  Man,  the  agent  and  representative  of  evil  is 
expressly  cursed  ;  and  the  age-long  strife  between  Good 
and  Evil  throughout  human  History,  and  the  in- 
evitable antagonism  between  their  personal  representa- 
tives, are  plainly  announced.  But  while  the  consequent 
suffering  to  the  Seed  of  the  woman  is  foretold,  the 
assurance  of  His  final  triumph  is  from  the  first  de- 
clared, It  blicdl  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise 
His  heel. 

Here,  with  the  Targums,  (which  paraphrase,  as  else- 
where, the  Name  of  God  by  the  phrase  the  Word  of  the 
Lord,)  and  with  the  Christian  Fathers  almost  uni- 
versally, we  understand  the  Divine  Person,  the  Lord 
God,  Wlio  thus  first  preached  the  Gospel  in  the  hear- 
ing of  our  first  parents,  and  revealed  the  great  central 
truth  that  the  triumph  over  evil  should  be  achieved  by 
One  in  our  nature,  to  have  been  Himself  the  Son  of  God, 
thus  entering  on  a  new  phrase  of  His  inherent  Mediator- 
ship,  and  beginning  to  manifest  Himself  as  the  Saviour 
and  champion  of  Man  against  the  Evil  One,  man's 
seducer  and  oppressor,  and  His  own  envious  adversary 
and  rival. 

'The  Targ-ums  hero  and  f^enerally  paraphrase  the  Name 
of  the  Most  Hig-h  by  "  the  Word  of  the  IjORD,"  more 
especially  in  those  passag-es  where  is  recorded  anything 
like  a  visible  or  sensible  representation  of  His  Majesty. 


144  Adoration  of  God  for  His  mercy.        [lect. 

The  Christian  Fathers  almost  universally  believed  that 
every  appeax-ance  of  God  to  the  patriarchs  and  prophets 
was  a  manifestation  of  the  Eternal  Son,  Compare  John  i. 
1 8.'  (Bishop  Harold  Browne  in  The  Speaker's  Commentary^ 
on  Gen.  iii.  8.)  See  also  his  Exposition  of  the  Articles^ 
Art.  I.  Section  II.  On  the  Old  Testament  intimations  of 
a  plurality  of  Persons  in  the  Godhead.  Also,  as  to  the 
Targums,  Canon  Churton  on  Gen.  iii.  8.  in  the  S.P.C.K. 
Commentary. 

74.  At  this  point,  whatever  we  may  think  as  to  the 
question,  Whether,  without  the  necessity  of  redeeming 
Man  from  sin,  the  Son  of  God  would  have  taken  Man's 
nature  upon  Him,  we  cannot  but  pause  to  adore,  upon 
the  first  announcement  of  the  Divine  Purpose  of  mercy 
towards  our  race. 

Let  us  prostrate  ourselves  in  spirit  before  so  mar- 
vellous a  condescension.  Let  us  hiuubly  thank  God 
for  His  tinsj^eakable  gift  of  His  Only-Begotten  Son ; 
and  this  especially  in  connection  with  the  accompany- 
ing revelation  of  the  Suffering  therein  involved,  now 
that  Sin  had  entered  into  the  toorld,  and  death  hy  sin. 
An  Incarnation  of  God  with  no  sin  of  man  to  atone  for 
and  remove,  and  so  with  no  suffering  or  shame  for  the 
Incarnate  One,  had  been  the  theme  of  the  most  awed 
thanksgiving,  the  occasion  for  the  very  highest  reach 
of  wonder,  love,  and  praise  ;  but,  when,  as  it  actually 
is,  it  is  the  stooping  of  the  Eternal  Son,  for  love  of 
Man,  '  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation,'  to  shame  and 
dishonour,  to  agony  and  death,  what  words  of  human 
speech,  what  thoughts  of  human  heart,  what  but  the 
profoundest  worship,  on  every  mention,  on  every  thought 
of  it,  of  which  oiu'  whole  nature  which  He  so  greatly 


IV.]  The  '  Protevangelitim!  145 

loved  and  valued,  is  capable  in  its  every  element,  in 
body,  soul,  and  spirit,  can  be  the  meet  acknowledg- 
ment of  so  great  a  mystery  of  love ;  a  mystery  whose 
very  amazing,  nay,  overpowering  inconceivableness  is,  to 
the  heart  which  knows  its  own  sore  need,  the  sure  de- 
monstration of  its  truth  % 

75.  We  cannot  tell  in  what  sense  the  stupendous 
promise,  as  we  see  it  to  have  been,  was  understood  by 
Adam  and  Eve  ;  nor  how  far,  if  at  all,  they  realized 
its  import.  Some  have  thought  tliat  Eve's  saying  on 
the  birth  of  Cain  indicates  her  belief  that  he  was  the 
promised  Seed.  /  liave  gotten  a  man,  even  Jehovah  is 
the  literal  rendering  of  the  present  Hebrew  Text  in 
Genesis  iv.  i  ;  but  the  Septuagint  renders  through,  or 
hy  means  of,  God,  indicating  the  presence  of  a  preposi- 
tion and  the  reading  Elohim  instead  of  Jehovah ;  and 
the  Vulgate  follows  it  exactly. 

But  at  least  the  promise  assured  them  of  mercy. 
It  kindled  a  hope  which  should  be,  as  widespread 
traditions  show  it  to  have  been,  the  cherished  posses- 
sion, amid  whatever  perversions  and  corruptions,  of 
their  descendants  generally.  And  it  was  the  germinal 
seed  and  root  of  that  unbroken  growth  of  enlarging 
Prophecy  which  became  the  special  distinction  of 
the  Chosen  Kace  until  it  culminated  in  the  Angelic 
Salutation. 

76.  We,  looking  back  from  the  sure  ground  of  a 
completed  Revelation,  can  trace  with  thankful  interest 
from  the  very  first  the  presence  and  the  love  of  the 
predestined  Mediator,  (Whose  Sufiering  in  our  flesh  we 
perceive  to  be  indicated  m  the  allusion  to  the  bruising 

L 


146  The  Primitive  Usage  [lect. 

of  His  heel).  And  we  observe  the  symbolic  intimation 
of  His  remedial  Death,  vouchsafed  even  before  the  ex- 
pulsion from  Paradise,  in  the  act  of  the  Lord  God  Who 
vfiade  unto  Adam  and  to  his  wife  coats  of  skins,  and 
clothed  them  ;  an  act  which,  as  involving  the  death  of 
an  animal,  was  the  first  proclamation  of  at  once  the 
necessity  and  the  possibility  for  the  sinner  of  cleansing 
and  remission  by  blood.  In  the  absence  of  any  express 
statement  we  cannot  be  sure  that  the  death  of  the 
animal,  so  slain  to  supply  a  covering,  was  sacrificial, 
a  distinctly  ordained  addition  to  the  primeval  offering 
of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  ;  but  the  supposition  that 
it  was  so  would  be  at  least  thoroughly  consistent  with 
the  acceptance  of  animal  sacrifice  as  offered  by  Abel 
and  with  the  marked  rejection  of  Cain's  sacrifice  ;  a 
rejection  which  seems  to  imply  the  neglect  on  his  part 
of  a  known  duty.  We  know  that  the  animal  was 
not  slain  for  food ;  and  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that 
its  death  should  have  had  no  deeper  significance,  no 
higher  purpose,  than  to  provide  a  covering. 

Bishop  Bull,  Vol.  I.  Sermon  VIH.,  p.  305.  '  The 
Church  of  God  hath  always  believed  that  Adam  re- 
pented, and  laid  hold  on  the  mercy  of  a  second  covenant, 
and  was  received  again  into  divine  favour ;  although 
there  he  no  express  mention  of  this  in  his  history. 
Thus,  we  do  not  read  of  any  precept  or  law  given  by 
God  to  Adam  after  his  fall,  but  we  find  the  practice  of 
sacrificing-  in  his  fiimily.  And  it  will  be  very  diSieult 
to  him  that  considers  the  matter  thoroughly,  to  imagine 
that  he  invented  that  rite  of  his  own  head;  he  was 
taught  it  therefore  by  the  command  and  institution  of 
God.     And  it  is  highly  reasonable  to  think,  that  at  the 


IV.]  of  Animal  Sacrifice.  147 

same  time,  when  God  g-ave  a  second  law  and  institution, 
he  encouraged  him  also  to  the  obedience  of  it,  by  a 
promise  of  acceptance  and  restitution  to  his  former 
favour.  Upon  this  hope  doubtless  he  renewed  his  alle- 
giance to  his  Creator,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  worship 
and  service  of  God,  and  taught  his  sons,  Cain  and  Abel, 
to  do  so  likewise.  From  him  they  learned  to  present 
their  several  offering's  to  the  Lord,  Gen.  iv.,  where  we 
read  also,  ver.  4,  5,  that  God  had  respect  to  AheVs  offering^ 
and  declared  his  acceptance  of  it  by  some  visible  sign, 
taken  notice  of  by  his  brother  Cain ;  probably,  as  the 
Hebrew  doctors  tell  us,  "  by  a  fire  from  heaven,  inflaming 
his  offering."  '  See  also  Bishop  Harold  Browne,  on  Gen. 
iv.3,  in  The  Sjjeake/s  Commenlary ;  and  Yreeman,  Principles 
of  Divine  Service,  Part  II.  Chap.  II.  Sect,  iii.,  especially 
paragraph  8,  and  Note  there. 

However  tliis  may  be,  the  usage  of  animal  sacrifice, 
accompanying  and  accompanied  by  the  Unbloody 
Offering  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground,  and  that  very  soon 
expressly  stated  to  be  in  the  determinate  form  of 
Bread  and  Wine,  is  the  marked  central  feature  of 
outward  religious  worship  among  all  races  of  mankind 
from  the  first  \  The  two  kinds  of  sacrifice  combine  to 
form  the  standing  witness  at  once  to  the  primary  duty 
of  Eucharistic  Thanksgiving  to  Him  Who  is  the  Author 
and  supporter  of  man's  life  (in  devout  acknowledgment 
that  all  he  is  and  has  is  from  God  and  must  be 
rendered  back  to  God),  and  to  the  sad  reality  of  sin 
and  consequent  estrangement,  needing  an  intervening 
death  of  one  who  stands  in  the  place  of  and  represents 
the  offerer.  In  this  added  feature  were  involved  for 
the  offerer  both  the  penitent  confession  of  sin  ami 
^  See  Trench's  llnlsean  Lectures,  1846,  Lect.  IV. 
L  2 


148  Mediatorial  relation  of  the  Son  [lect. 

consequent  forfeiture  of  life  and  the  humble  faith  that, 
through  the  Death  of  Another  which  God  would 
accept,  the  forfeited  Hfe  might  be  restored  and  the 
estrangement  done  away.  That  such  was  the  inner 
meaning  of  this  primitive  and  otherwise  inexpHcable 
institution  we  can  hardly  doubt.  Whether  all  who 
took  part  in  it  realized  this  meaning  is  another  thing, 
and  need  not  be  supposed  in  order  to  believe  that 
such  was  its  inner  meaning.  Yet  one  can  hardly 
doubt  that  the  higher  spirits  at  least  among  God's 
specially-favoured  people  did  take  part  in  it  with  a 
forward-looking  faith  in  Him  That  was  to  come,  and 
with  some  consciousness  that,  in  thus  drawing  near  to 
God  in  His  then  appointed  way,  they  were  accepted 
of  Him. 

"j^.  Such  acceptance  we  are  sure  was  vouchsafed  to 
them  for  the  sake  of  One  Who,  though  as  yet  unre- 
vealed,  was  the  Mediator  even  then.  We  have  seen 
{Lecture  11.)  that  for  the  acceptance  of  the  Worship 
of  even  the  Holy  Angels  there  was  need  of  the  con- 
descending intervention  of  the  Only -Begotten  Son. 
There  was  the  same  need  for  Man  in  his  brief  con- 
dition of  primeval  innocence.  And  now,  for  Man 
fallen,  the  need  was  greater.  It  was  supplied.  What- 
ever acceptableness  belonged  to  the  worship  of  the  best 
and  holiest,  an  Abel,  a  Noah,  a  Melchizedek,  belonged 
to  it  only  as  passed  upward  to  the  Throne  of  the 
Most  High  by  the  Priestly  Action  of  the  Eternal  Son. 
Nor  was  there  any  other  channel  of  blessing  from 
God  to  Man.  Whatever  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
their   duty,  whatever   hope   for   the    future   came   to 


IV.]  to  Mankind  after  the  Fall.  149 

men's  sin-darkeneJ  minds,  came  to  them  through  Him 
Who  is  ever  the  only  Lujlit  of  the  loorld.  Whatever 
discipline  of  mingled  mercy  and  judgement,  throughout 
the  long  preparation,  was  vouchsafed  to  Man,  whether 
in  the  Heathen  condition,  as  it  grew  and  developed 
itself,  or  within  the  favoured  circle  of  the  Chosen, 
was  administered  throuo-h  Him.  Whatever  strivino^s 
of  God's  Spirit  wrought  within  the  spirit  of  man,  in 
whatever  condition,  under  whatever  circumstances,  fav- 
ourable or  otherwise,  wrought  through  Him.  Through 
the  long  four  thousand  years  of  chequered  history, 
sacred  or  profane.  His  was  the  unseen  guiding  Hand, 
His  the  unseen  controlling  governance. 

He  was  never  at  any  time  far  from  His  creature  Man. 
In  a  true  sense  He  was  ever  in  the  world,  though  the  world 
hneiv  Him  not.  He  had  ever,  even  in  the  darkest  hours. 
His  nearer  People ;  the  few  who  were  even  then  the 
beginning  of  His  Kingdom ;  on  whom  rested  whatever 
liofht  reached  men  from  Heaven — and  it  reached  them 
through  Him — among  whom  was  cherished  from  the 
first  the  stream  of  true  traditional  rehgion  ;  in  tlie 
inner  bosom  of  whose  personal,  family,  social,  or 
national  life  were  treasured  up  the  hopes  of  the  whole 
world.  Of  those  hopes  He  was  througliout  the  centre 
and  the  stay.  The  faith  of  Israel  looked  ever  onward 
from  the  first,  to  a  personal  Deliverer,  to  One  ]Vlio 
should  come.  The  growing  light  of  Prophecy,  age  after 
age,  sustained  and  developed  this  faith,  until  it  was 
realized  in  Him  Whose  love  and  mercy  were,  like  His 
personal  dignity,  beyond  all  actual  expectation,  though 
not  beyond  what  a  truer  and  more   sj^iritual  insight 


150  The  Christian  Faith,  lighted  up  [lect. 

miglit — and  possibly  in  some  few  instances  of  the 
specially  pure-hearted  and  devout  actually  did,  at  least 
in  occasional  glimpses — discern,  in  the  recorded  inci- 
dents of  inspired  History,  and  in  the  written  utterances 
of  inspired  Prophecy. 

78.  We  Christians  indeed  possess  the  key  of  a  fully- 
developed  Faith.  Above  oar  horizon  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness has  fully  risen.  Baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
ive  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One.  Through  the 
Christ,  her  Divine  Head,  the  Church,  ichich  is  His 
Body,  the  fulness  of  Him  thatjilleth  all  in  all,  has,  from 
the  first  Paschal  In-breathing  onwards,  received,  for  her 
distinctive  possession  as  an  abiding  Gift,  not  the  spirit 
of  the  world,  hut  the  S])irit  Wliich  is  from  God,  that  ive 
might  hnoiv  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  hy  God 
(i  Cor.  ii.  12).  Partaking  of  this  Gift,  he  that  is 
spiritual  has,  in  his  measure,  the  mind  of  Chynst,  and 
so  discerneth  that  which  can  be  only  spiritually  dis- 
cerned. In  the  language  of  Saint  Paul  on  this  subject 
there  is  very  deep  and  important  truth ;  though  it 
be  truth  not  always  sufficiently  remembered  even  by 
those  who  readily  admit  it.  The  natural  man  {>\rv^iKo^ 
avQp(jo7ro<s)  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ; 
for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him.  Hence  it  is  that  No 
man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  hut  hy  the  Holy 
Ghost.  True,  as  we  may  so  express  it,  in  a  literal 
and  outward  sense,  and  as  the  expression  of  a  coarser 
distinction,  in  the  first  age  of  the  Church,  when  the 
Gospel  was  first  proclaimed  to  an  ignorantly  unbe- 
lieving crowd,  such  language  is  true  still ;  not  in  that 
sense  only,  but  also  of  those  who  are  professed  Cliristiaa 


IV.]  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  151 

believers,  and  far  from  insincere  or  doubtful,  but  within 
whose  hearts  and  lives  the  inward  fire  of  a  real  spiritual 
life  has  hardly  yet  been  kindled  into  an  avowed  and 
living  flame  ;  or  who,  even  when  it  has  been  so  kindled, 
deal  with  religious  questions,  in  thought  and  study, 
or  in  argument  and  teaching,  not  always  in  a  con- 
sciously religious  spirit,  but,  too  much  so  at  least  if 
not  altogether,  as  an  intellectual  question,  a  thesis,  or, 
worse  still,  as  a  badge  of  party-distinction,  to  be  hotly 
contended  for  as  against  those  who,  within  or  without 
the  pale  of  belief,  have  difficulties  about  it,  and  to  be 
wielded,  in  a  half-contemptuous  spirit,  against  such 
as  the  instrument  of  their  discomfiture.  Such  is  not 
the  mind  of  Christ ;  and  in  whatever  proportion  it 
exists,  in  sect,  or  school,  or  party,  it  must,  in  such 
proportion,  weaken  their  power  of  spiritual  discern- 
ment ;  not  only  hindering  the  acquisition  of  fresh 
lights  on  Inspired  Eevelation,  such  as  the  devout  study 
of  it  in  the  right  spirit  would  surely  lead  the  Church 
to  in  successive  ages,  but  also  tending  to  render  in- 
effective the  even  eao-er  maintenance  of  the  common 
and  necessary  truths  long  known  and  acknowledged. 
Church  History,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  bears  abun- 
dant witness  to  the  reality  of  this  danger.  Next  to 
the  worldly  and  godless  lives  of  professed  believers, 
it  is  perhaps  the  chiefest  cause  of  the  present  obvious 
weakness  and  barrenness  of  Cluistianity  in  the  world. 
The  glorious  Faith  of  Catholic  Christendom,  as  it  is 
crystallized  in  the  Creeds  into  gems  that  blaze  with 
living  light  and  beauty,  as  sentence  after  sentence 
rises  heavenward  from  glowing  hearts  and  lips  in  the 


152  is  the  Key  of  Man's  past  History.         [lect. 

worship  of  the  Church,  is  no  mere  result  of  human 
dialectic  or  scholastic  disputation,  no  mere  triumph 
of  intellectual  skill,  no  bold  flight  of  philosophic  specu- 
lation ;  though  the  great  names  of  the  conciliar  epoch 
may  rank  with  the  highest  in  those  respects.  No — it 
was  rather  the  outcome  of  the  tears  and  the  prayers,  the 
struggles  and  the  sorrows,  the  passionate  adoring  love, 
the  resistance  unto  hlood  for  Jesus'  sake,  of  those  who, 
being  holy  and  humble  men  of  heart,  had  real  insight 
into  things  divine  and  spiritual ;  of  men  and  women 
in  whose  hearts  it  lived,  and  who  lived  and  died  by  it, 
in  days  when  the  world,  even  the  world  that  called 
itself  Christian,  was  against  them.  This  faith,  which 
we  by  God's  mercy  inherit  and  have  known,  perhaps 
too  cheaply  and  too  easily,  from  childhood  is,  especially 
when  warmly  and  lovingly  held  and  embraced,  and 
studied  in  the  light  which  the  Spirit  of  God  supplies, 
the  Key  to  the  past,  as  it  is  the  consolation  and  the 
joy  of  the  present,  and  the  ground  and  stay  of  the 
hope  of  the  future. 

It  is  the  Key  of  the  past.  It  sheds  its  clear  light 
from  the  height  of  the  Christian  stand-point  over  the 
chequered  history  of  the  long  Preparation  for  the 
Incarnation,  the  long  TraiSaywyla  (the  Education)  of  our 
race.  It  discloses  to  us  throughout  the  presence  and 
the  operation  of  One,  '  unseen  yet  ever  near,'  Who 
was  deeply  and  graciously  interested  in  the  welfare 
of  mankind ;  Who  was  framing  an  election  which  was 
no  proscription  of  the  rest,  but  the  means  and  method 
of  the  ultimate  blessing  of  all ;  holding  communication 
with  its  chosen  spirits,  from  time  to  time,  in  mysterious 


IV.]  The  Ante-Dihivian  Dispcnsatio7i.  153 

visits,  throiifrli  an  audible  voice,  and  even  in  visible, 
though  temporary,  manifestations.  And  all  this  the 
fruit  of  that  condescending  love  whereby  He  Who  is, 
necessarily,  in  His  own  inner  Divine  Being,  Infinite 
and,  to  created  eyes,  invisible  as  is  the  Father  Himself, 
yet  stooped  to  Man's  necessity  and  weakness  through 
successive  economies  of  mercy;  wherein,  in  absolute 
unity  of  Will  and  work  with  the  Eternal  Father, 
Whose  purposes  He  was,  as  Mediator,  carrying  out, 
and  with  the  Eternal  Spirit  by  Whom  He  carried  them 
out,  He  revealed  to  fallen  Man  such  knowledge  of  God, 
and  of  His  Purpose  and  Will,  as  Man,  from  time  to 
time,  was  able  to  bear ;  until  the  time  came  when, 
in  place  of  His  secret  working,  He  should  stand  revealed 
in  our  flesh  as  the  One  Mediator  hetween  God  and  men, 
the  Man  Christ  Jesus. 

79.  Looking  at  the  Ante-Diluvian  Dispensation,  a 
clearly  defined  alcov  (Age)  closed  by  a  decisive  ending, 
an  '  end  of  the  world,'  we  observe  the  following  leading 
features  : — 

First,  the  early  and  marked  distinction  between 
the  Church  and  the  World,  the  faithful  and  the  dis- 
obedient, the  seed  of  the  woman  and  the  seed  of  the 
serpent,  showing  itself,  first,  in  the  history  of  Cain  and 
Abel.  Cain,  accursed  and  banished  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord,  l)ecomes  the  founder  of  merely  secular 
life.  Seth  is  apiwinted  instead  of  Abel ;  and  in  him 
and  in  his  son  Enos,  the  Patriarchs  of  the  line  of  which 
the  Christ  was  to  be  born,  the  other  stream,  of  the 
religious  life  of  Man,  is  begun  and  cariied  on.  The 
fifth  chapter  of  Genesis  opens  with  a  markedly  fresh 


154  The  Close  of  the  First  Age  [lect. 

beginning,  and  records  the  first  origin  of  the  distinctive 
Kingdom  and  Church  of  God  upon  eartli.  In  the 
brief  narrative  we  discern  the  setting  apart  of  some 
special  place  for  the  customary  worship  of  God,  of 
which,  doubtless,  the  chief  feature  was  Sacrifice,  and 
the  recognized  Minister  the  Head  of  the  Family,  the 
First-born,  i.e.  after  Adam,  Seth,  and  then  Enos,  the 
heads  of  the  line  in  which  the  true  tradition  of  reliefion 
w^as  carried  on ;  Noah,  the  last,  being  expressly  styled 
a  jpreacher  of  righteousness  (2  Pet.  ii.  5)  ^  In  Enoch 
we  see  tlie  great  Saint  of  the  earliest  Church,  the  first 
of  whom  it  is  said  that  he  walked  tvith  God,  and  of 
whom,  as  of  Abel,  the  New  Testament  witnesses  ex- 
pressly that  the  principle  of  his  life  was  faith ;  that 
principle  which  in  all  ages  has  bound  religious  men  to 
God  and  to  the  Unseen.  He  loas  not,  for  God  took  him, 
witnessing  again,  as  before  in  the  case  of  Abel,  that 
prolonged  life  in  this  world  is  not  God's  best  gift  to  His 
Chosen,  and  that  Man's  true  life  is  that  within  the  veil. 
80,  The  close  of  the  First  Age  was  brought  on  by 
the  corruption  of  the  Church  and  the  diminution  of  its 
numbers  to  the  eight  members  of  a  single  family.  The 
sons  of  God,  the  descendants  of  Seth,  those  who  from 
his  day  had  called  uj^on  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  inter- 
married with  the  daughters  of  men.  To  this  the 
extreme  corruption  of  mankind  seems  to  be  expressly 
attributed  by  the  Sacred  History ;  as  if  through  this 
the  salt  of  the  earth  had  by  gradual  deterioration  lost  its 
savour.      The  solemnly  typical  character  of  the  crisis  is 

^  Macdonald,  Pentateuch,  Book  III.  Cli.  iil.  Sect,  i ;  Freeman,  Prin- 
ciples of  Divine  Service,  Fart  II.  Ch.  i.  Sect.  3. 


IV.]  was  an  'End  of  the  World!  155 

witnessed  to  by  the  use  made  of  it  by  way  of  warning 
in  our  Lord's  language  on  two  recorded  occasions  ;  first, 
in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  Saint  Luke's  Gospel, 
following  up  His  answer  to  the  question  of  the 
Pharisees  when  the  kingdom  of  God  should  come  ;  and, 
later,  in  the  great  eschatological  Prophecy  uttered  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  in  answer  to  the  similar  enquiry 
of  His  four  Apostles.  A  similar  use  of  the  great 
primeval  example  of  mercy  and  of  judgment  occurs  in  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Saint  Peter,  whom  we  know  to  have 
been  one  of  the  small  circle  of  listeners  to  the  Olivet 
Discourse,  and  who  was,  almost  certainly,  present  on 
the  earlier  occasion  also.  The  warning  that  lies  in  the 
words  of  the  Master  and  the  disciple  alike  is  this.  That 
this  awful  history  was  to  repeat  itself,  both  as  regards 
the  sin  and  the  judgment  of  the  ungodly  and  as  re- 
gards the  dehverance  of  the  faithful ;  but  both  on  a 
grander  scale.  The  picture  of  the  world  before  the  Flood 
is  that  of  a  world  broken  loose  from  the  restraints  of  re- 
ligion, with  no  faith  but  in  the  present  and  the  visible, 
and  giving  unrestrained  liberty  to  the  natural  tendencies 
of  man  in  worldlincss,  violence,  and  lust;  and  this  in 
the  face  of  merciful  warning  from  God  through  the 
preaching  of  Noah  during  at  least  a  hundred  years, 
during  which  the  longsujfering  of  God  ivaited,  ivhile  the 
Ark  u-as  a  lyreimring  (i  Pet.  iii.  20),  but  met  only  with 
scoffing  and  unbelief.  The  Day  of  Judgment  came  ; 
and  this  first  epoch  of  human  History  is  awfully  closed 
by  what  was  indeed  an  End  of  the  ivorld,  a  a-wTeXeia  rod 
aiu>vo9,  the  consummation  of  one  Age,  the  opening  of 
another. 


156    The  Second  Beginning  of  Human  History,    [lect. 

8 1 .  Noah  and  his  Family,  the  saved  Church  of  God, 
stepped  forth  from  the  Ark  upon  a  new  Earth ;  and 
human  History  began  once  more  ;  but  soon  to  manifest 
afresh  the  old  antagonism  between  religion  and  irre- 
ligion.  An  express  curse  is  laid  on  Canaan  for  an  act 
of  sin ;  and  he  becomes,  like  Cain,  the  progenitor  of  a 
sinful  race.  A  merely  earthly  social  and  political  life, 
rising,  apparently,  under  the  leadership  of  Nimrod  to 
the  thought  of  a  world-empire  of  which  Babel  was  to 
be  the  centre,  developed  itself  apart  from  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  earth  among  the  descendants  of  Ham ;  and 
was  frustrated  by  special  divine  intervention.  True 
religion  w^as,  however,  preserved  in  the  family  of  Shem, 
until  we  reach  the  critical  epoch  of  the  Call  of  Abraham, 
in  whose  family  the  hopes  of  the  world,  and  the  pledge 
and  promise  of  Kedemption  for  all,  were  to  be  specially 
centred  and  treasured  up,  to  the  temporary  exclusion  of 
other  races  until  such  time  as  the  great  Promise  should 
be  fulfilled  to  the  blessing  of  all. 

Compare,  as  to  the  purpose  of  mercy  involved  in  the 
favour  shown  to  the  Race  of  Abraham,  Dr.  A.  B.  Bruce's 
Chief  End  of  Revelation  (Hodder  and  Stoug-hton,  1881), 
Ch.  II.  p.  83.  '  Israel  is  regarded  as  elected  to  he  a 
missionary  people  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
God  among  the  nations.  .  ,  .  The  prerogatives  of  Israel 
as  an  elect  race  .  .  .  consist  in  being  the  vehicle  through 
which  God  conveys  His  grace  to  all  others,'  and  so  we 
must  '  regard  election  as  merely  a  method  by  which  God 
uses  the  few  to  bless  the  many.'  And,  page  90,  In 
Abraham's  life  '  God  revealed  Himself  as  One  having  in 
view,  as  His  end  in  guiding  the  course  of  history,  the 
religious  well-being  of  mankind,  and  adopting  for  that 
purpose  the  method  of  election.'    Again,  Ch.  III.  p.  138, 


lY.]        Second  Example  of  Divine  Retribution.        157 

'  We  know  what  to  say  to  Rousseau  when  he  complains 
of"  the  proscription  of  the  whole  human  race,  Israel 
excepted.  There  was  no  proscription  in  the  case ;  election 
does  not  mean  proscription,  but  is  a  method  by  which 
one  is  used  to  bless  the  many.' 

This,  again,  was,  in  a  true  sense,  though  in  a  gentler 
way,  a  coming  to  judgment.  God's  special  choice  of 
one  Family  out  of  all  the  earth,  to  represent  His  King- 
dom ;  to  stand  in  a  nearer  relation  to  Himself,  initiated 
and  sealed  by  a  formal  covenant  with  its  perpetual  sign 
and  token  ;  to  be  the  depositaries  and  guardians  of  the 
true  primeval  and  traditional  religion  and  the  sole 
recipients  of  further  express  Revelation  ;  and,  above  all, 
to  be  the  Family  of  whom,  according  to  the  flesh,  the 
Christ  should  come — all  this  was  in  its  very  nature  a 
Kpia-19,  a  separation.  It  involved  the  comparative  and 
temporary  rejection  of  the  Gentile  world  in  general :  and 
was  closely  accompanied  by  a  very  visible  judgment  of 
vengeance  upon  the  worst  representatives  of  that  Gentile 
world  in  the  Destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  To 
that  event,  as  to  the  Flood,  an  especially  pointed  typical 
character  belongs.  This  is  plain  from  the  allusions  to 
both  events  in  the  later  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  the  use  made  of  both  by  our  Lord  and  His  Apostles, 
as  illustrative  examples  and  pledges  of  the  Divine 
Betribution  on  sin. 

82.  Here  we  have  to  remark — what  is  a  point  of 
grave  and  serious  importance,  yet  often  overlooked — 
that  the  operation  of  the  Son  of  God  as  the  Mediator  in 
the  Divine  Administration  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  ex- 
clusively one  of  Mercy.     In  both  Testaments  ahke  we 


158  The  Mediator  is  also  the  Jtidge.  [lect. 

are  divinely  taught  that  the  Mediator  is  also  the  Judge ; 
that  in  that  capacity  also  the  Son  acts  for  the  Father, 
the  Father  through  the  Son.  This  truth  the  Lord  has 
Himself  revealed  to  us,  in  the  words,  T]ie  Father  judgeth 
no  man,  hut  hath  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son 
(St.  John  V.  22.  See  Prof.  Westcott,  in  the  Speaker's 
Commentary  on  St.  John  v.  20-30.)  His  full  revelation 
in  this  function  is,  of  course,  reserved  for  the  Incarnate 
stage  of  His  Work.  The  Father  hath  given  Him 
authority  [e^ova-lav)  to  execute  judgment  because  He  is  a 
son  of  man  (St.  John  v.  27).  Both  in  solemn  Parables 
and  in  express  predictions  Christ  declares  that  this 
judicial  function  belongs  to  Him,  and  will  be  exercised 
by  Him,  as  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant.  As 
such  He  disclosed  Himself  in  His  character  of  Judge  as 
decisively  as  in  His  character  of  Saviour.  He  spoke 
clearly  as  One  Who  when  the  time  of  their  visitation, 
their  accejpted  time,  their  day  of  salvation,  was  over, 
would  surely  condemn  the  impenitent  and  unbelieving 
by  whom  His  offered  mercy  had  been  rejected.  At  the 
close  of  His  earthly  Ministry  He  warned  the  doomed 
Church  and  City  in  the  awful  Parables  of  the  Wicked 
Husbandmen  (St.  Mat.  xxi.  33),  and  of  the  Marriage 
of  the  King's  Son  {St.  Mat.  xxii.  i).  He  sentenced 
Jerusalem  when  He  said  I  would — ye  woidd  not. 
Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate  {St.  Mat. 
xxiii.  37;  St.  Luke  xiii.  34).  He  forewarned  His 
Apostles  of  the  impending  calamity ;  so  wording  His 
prophetic  discourse  as  to  lead  on  the  thoughts  of  all 
who  heard,  or  should  read,  it  to  that  last  great  Judg- 
ment of  all  the  Nations  {iravTa  ra  eOvt])  when  He,  as 


IV.]       Examples  of  His  Coming  to  yudgment.       159 

Judge  and  King,  should  8it  on  the  Tlirone  of  His  Glory 
{St.  Mat.  XXV.  31).  In  answer  to  their  adjuration  He 
said  to  Caiaphas  and  the  ruling  Council  of  the  apostate 
nation,  Presently  shall  ye  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on 
the  Right  Hand  of  Potver,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
Heaven  {St.  Mat.  xxvi.  64).  He  waited  tlirough  that 
generation  for  forty  years,  as  He  had  forborne  with  their 
fathers  in  the  wilderness,  not  willing  that  any  should 
perish,  hut  that  all  should  come  to  repentance  (2  Pet.  iii.  9). 
He  saved  the  penitent  and  believing  remnant,  when, 
warned  into  watchful  preparedness  by  His  words  on 
Olivet,  the  Jewish  Christians  of  Jerusalem  escaped  for 
their  lives  to  Pella,  the  Zoar  of  the  Church.  Then,  and 
not  till  then,  He  visited  the  once  faithful  city,  now 
become  an  harlot,  a  Babylon,  not  a  Jerusalem,  with  the 
most  fearful  judgment  the  world  has  ever  seen,  marking 
decisively  the  final  close  of  the  Mosaic  Dispensation  as 
indeed  a  arwreXeia  TOO  aiwvo9f  the  passing  away  of  one 
Age,  the  beginning  of  another,  the  judicial  inauguration 
of  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  {St.  LuJce  xxi.  24 ;  Rom. 
xi.  25). 

But  he  must  be  a  careless  reader  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment History,  so  typical  and  significant  throughout, 
who  does  not  discern  therein  similar  critical  epochs  of 
judicial  visitation,  accompanied  in  each  case  by  the 
same  marked  deliverance  of  the  faithful,  and  signalizing 
the  commencement  of  a  new  stage  in  the  development 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  So  it  w^as  at  the  close  of  the 
Ante-diluvian  Age.  80  it  w^as  at  the  Call  of  Abraham 
and  the  Judgment  on  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  So  it  was 
at  the  Judgment  of  Egypt  and  the  Exodus.     So  it  was 


1 60     The  '  Thcophauics '  in  the  Old  Testament,    [lect. 

at  the  Conquest  of  Canaan  and  the  Judgment  of  the 
Seven  Nations.  These,  and  such  later  events  also  as 
the  downfall  of  Samaria  and  the  Northern  Kingdom, 
the  Conquest  of  Jerusalem,  the  Captivity,  the  Eeturn, 
the  suffering  under  Antiochus,  must  be  viewed  in  a  line 
(so  to  speak)  with  their  New  Testament  analogues,  the 
Final  Judgment  on  Jerusalem  and  the  Calling  of  the 
Gentiles,  if  we  would  understand  rightly  the  true  cha- 
racter of  either  series  or  their  place  in  the  development 
of  the  Divine  Purposes,  as  they  slowly  unfolded  them- 
selves under  the  Providential  guidance  of  One  Who, 
though  long  unseen,  was  ever  at  work,  overruling  the 
weakness  and  waywardness,  the  failures  and  the  sins, 
of  mankind  and  of  His  People,  and  Whose  Personality 
is  fully  disclosed  to  us  in  the  New  Testament  Eeve- 
lation. 

83.  In  looking  at  the  past  Education  of  the  World 
in  preparation  for  the  transcendent  event  of  the  Incar- 
nation, less  consideration  perhaps  than  was  due  has 
been  bestowed  on  one  very  remarkable  feature  of  it,  as 
recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  visible  Appearances 
{Ajjjparitiones,  '  Theophanies ')  of  God  to  Man  at  certain 
critical  epochs.  To  these,  regarded  in  addition  to  the 
verbal  Promises  and  Prophecies,  and  to  the  closely 
typical  character  which  belongs  as  well  to  the  whole 
history  as  to  the  prominent  institutions  and  personages 
of  God's  ancient  people,  an  especial  importance  attaches 
over  and  above  their  interest  as  marking  occasions  or 
communications  of  a  special  nature  ;  for  they  are,  in  the 
language  of  Bishop  Bull,  '  preludes  of  the  Incarnation,' 
and  so  an  important  part  of  its  evidence. 


IV,]  They  occur  at  adtical  periods.  i6i 

We  find  them  just  when  we  should  naturally  expect 
them  if  at  all ;  not  so  much  in  the  settled  and  matured 
religious  life  of  the  nation  in  its  destined  home  in  the 
Holy  Land ;  not  so  much,  if  at  all,  when  the  regular 
Priesthood  and  the  Prophetic  Order  were  normally  dis- 
charging their  proper  functions  as  the  religious  guides 
and  teachers  of  the  Jewish  People ;  but,  speaking 
generally,  in  the  earlier  beginnings  of  their  religious 
history  as  a  nation  peculiarly  related  to  God,  or  else  in 
times  of  difficulty,  distress,  and  change. 

In  one  class  of  passages  it  is  said  that  God,  or  the 
Lord  (Jehovah),  ai^j^eared,  with  no  express  mention 
of  the  outward  form  or  manner ;  yet  with  indications 
usually  decisive  enough,  even  in  each  case  taken  by 
itself,  and  absolutely  so  when  all  of  like  kind  are  con- 
sidered together,  that  what  is  described  is  intended  to 
be  understood  as  indeed  a  visible  Appearance  of  a 
Divine  Person. 

In  other  passages  there  is  mention  of  audible  com- 
munications of  God  to  Man,  and  indeed  of  a  colloquy 
between  them,  without  any  express  assertion  of  a 
visible  appearance.  Yet  a  close  observation  will  lead  to 
the  conclusion  that  in  these  also  the  inspired  historian 
intended  his  reader  to  understand  that  the  Divine  in- 
terlocutor was  visibly  present.  Examples  of  this  are, 
The  hearing  by  Adam  and  Eve  of  the  Voice  of  the  Lord 
God  ivalldng  in  the  Garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day^ ;  The 

'  Of  this  St.  Augustine  says,  '  Quomodo  enim  possit  ad  litteram 
intclligi  talis  Dei  deambulatio  et  collocatio  non  iu  specie  huniaua  non 
video.'  And,  again,  *  Non  teniere  dixerim  si  Paradisuni  quemdam 
corporalem  locum  ilia  Scriptura  insinuat  [and  the  names  of  tlie  four 

M 


i62         Bp.  Bull  follows  tJie  early  Christian      [lect. 

Lord's  interview  with  Cain;  Also  God's  blessing  of  Noah 
and  his  sons,  and  His  speaking  unto  Noah  and  his  sons 
with  him,  when  He  established  His  covenant  with  them 
and  ordained  the  rainbow  for  its  token.  Distinct  from 
passages  of  this  class  are  others  (of  which  we  are  not 
speaking  at  present)  in  which  all  that  is  said  or  implied 
is  that  God  spake  audibly  (as,  for  example,  in  His  call 
of  Samuel)  to  the  ear  of  man,  in  waking  life,  or  in 
visions  and  dreams  ^ 

Lastly,  there  is  a  striking  group  of  passages  in 
which  there  is  undoubtedly  intended  a  visible  Appear- 
ance as  of  an  Angel  or  a  Man,  while  yet  in  each  instance 
the  communication  is  undoubtedly  from  God ;  and  the 
progress  of  the  narrative  compels  the  reader  to  think 
of  a  very  close  and  solemn  Presence  of  the  Almighty. 

84.  Before  investigating  these  passages  in  detail  it 
is  necessary  to  insist  afresh  on  the  great  underlying 
truth,  that  the  One  Medium  of  the  Divine  communi- 
cations to  mankind,  whatever  may  have  been  their 
special  outer  form  (and  that  was  various),  has  ever 
been  throughout  the  Second  Person  of  the  Holy  Trin- 
ity, the  Eternal  Word.  Bishop  Bull,  in  the  opening  of 
his  immortal  Treatise  in  Defence  of  the  Nicene  Creed, 
an  effort  expressly  designed  to  meet  the  Arian  teaching 
of  one   Christoijher  Sandius,  whose  writings  (published 

rivers  seem  to  com])el  us  to  this,  not  to  mention  the  general  dangers 
and  uncertainty  of  (so-called)  spiritual  interpretation  of  plain  narrative 
statements]  deambulare  ibi  Deum  nisi  in  aliqua  corporea  forma  uullo 
mode  potuisse.'     {De  Triiiitate,  II.  Cap.  x.  17,  i8). 

^  Yet  in  the  narrative  of  Samuel's  Call  in  i  Sam.  iii.  the  wording 
of  ver.  10  is  noticeable,  'And  the  Lord  came,  atid  stood,  and  called  as 
at  other  times,  Samuel,  Samuel.' 


IV.]  writers  in  believing  that  163 

at  Cologne  in  1676)  'were  then  everywhere  in  the 
hands  of  students  of  theology  and  others/  lays  down,  in 
lano;uaf!:e  borrowed  from  Tertullian's  aro-ument  ao^ainst 
the  Patripassian  heresies  of  Sabelliiis,  Noetus,  Praxeas, 
and  others,  this  truth,  as  the  very  first  proposition 
of  his  work,  that  '  from  the  beginning  the  whole  order 
of  the  Divine  Administration  has  had  its  course  throuirh 
the  Son  ('a  primordio  omnem  ordinem  divinae  dis- 
positionis  per  Filium  decucurrisse')  ^  He  then  pro- 
ceeds to  draw  it  out  at  length  and  in  detail,  and  refers 
to  it  repeatedly  throughout  his  argument  as  a  truth  of 
the  utmost  importance. 

That  this  should  have  been  so  will,  after  our  previous 
consideration  of  the  relation  of  the  Son  of  God  to  the 
w^ork  of  Creation  in  general  from  the  beginning,  seem 
natural,  consistent,  and  what  was  to  be  expected,  as  in 
full  harmony  with  that  relation.  Bui,  further,  and  very 
evidently,  it  also  harmonizes  with  the  great  central 
truths  of  the  Incarnation,  the  Pre -Existence,  and  the 
true  Godhead  of  Christ,  and  of  the  Plurality  of  Persons 
within  the  One  Divine  Essence ;  and  not  only  harmo- 
nizes with  them  but  goes  a  long  way  towards  establish- 
ing them.  This  it  is  clear  Bishop  Bull  very  strongly 
felt ;  and  herein  he  only  followed  the  undoubted  belief 
of  the  early  Christian  ^vl'iters  and  Apologists,  of  whose 
general  view  the  language  quoted  from  Tertullian  is 
a  correct  expression.  His  own  assertion,  many  times 
repeated,  is  '  That  the  Catholic  Doctors  of  the  first 
three  centuries  all  with  one  accord  taught  this : '   and 

'  IjuII,  Def.  Xic.  Creed,  Translation  in  Oxford  Library  of  Anrj.-Cath. 
Theology,  Part  T.  p.  15,  Part.  II.  p.  596. 

M  2 


164  Divine  communications  [lect. 

lie  adds,  'One  who  is  ignorant  of  this  is  a  stranger  to 
the  writings  of  the  Fathers/  and  that  '  The  Catholic 
Doctors  of  the  Church  after  the  Council  of  Nice  agree 
on  this  point  with  the  Nicene  Fathers  ^!     A  few  pages 
later  he  states  the  view  alluded  to,  which  he  says  the 
ancient  Doctors  '  had  learnt  from  Apostolical  tradition,' 
as  follows; — 'God  the  Father,  as  He  at  first  framed  and 
created  the  world  through  His  Son,   so  through  the 
same  Son  did  He  afterwards  manifest  Himself  to  the 
world.     Therefore  the  Son  of  God,  although  in  the  last 
times  of  His  Incarnation  He  has  at  length  held  familiar 
intercourse  with  mankind,  still  always  from  the  very 
earliest  period  of  its  existence  presided  over  the  Church; 
and  even  under  the  Old  Testament,  though  by  a  hidden 
and  secret  dispensation,  showed  Himself  to  holy  men  ^Z 
85.  It  would  then  follow  from  this  principle  that  He 
Who  in   the    earlier  Dispensations   immediately  com- 
municated with  Man,  on  the  occasions  alluded  to,  was 
the  Personal  Word  of  the  Eternal  Father,  the  Eternal 
Son.     Where  the  communication  was  by  audible  word 
or  voice  only,  nothing  would  seem  more  natural  than  to 
regard  it  as  the  Voice  of  Him  Who  is  Tlie  Word  of  God. 
The  Voice   of  the  Father  is  indeed  declared  in  Holy 
Scripture  to  have  been  heard  by  man ;  but  that  is  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  during  the  Incarnate  Presence 
of  the  Son  on  earth  at  the  times  when  the  Voice  was 
heard,  as  at  the  Baptism  and  the  Transfiguration,  and 

1  Def.  Fid.  Nic.  I.  i.  2. 

^  Ibid.  I.  i.  12.  But  the  whole  of  Bishop  Bull's  first  chapter,  and 
of  Book  IV.  Chap,  iii,  should  by  all  means  be  carefully  read  in  con- 
nection with  this  subject. 


IV.]  were  always  through  tJic  Son;  165 

again,  at  the  close  of  the  Ministry  in  answer  to  our 
Lord's  direct  appeal,  Father,  glorify  TJiy  Name.  {St. 
John  xii.  28.) 

But  if  in  the  Old  Testament  the  spoken  word  an- 
nounced the  Presence  more  especially  of  God  the  Son, 
much  more  the  visible  Appearance  accompanying  the 
Voice ;  for  of  Him  alone,  as  Dr.  Mill  says,  '  a  personal 
apparition  can  be  catholically  supposed  ^'  So  the  an- 
cient Church  undoubtedly  thought ;  on  the  following 
grounds.  Holy  Scripture,  speaking  of  the  Almighty  in 
His  absolute  Divine  Being,  says,  None  (ovSeli)  hath  seen 
God  at  any  time  {St.  John  i.  18)  :  None  can  see  Hrni 
and  live  {Exod.  xxxiii.  20)  :  }¥liom  no  man  hath  seen, 
nor  can  see,  ^¥llo  divelleth  in  light  that  none  can  a])proach 
unto  (1  Tim.  vi.  16),  It  follows  therefore,  since  God  in 
Himself,  in  His  essential  Nature,  is  necessarily  invisible 
to  the  Creature,  being  Pure  Spirit,  that  when  we  read 
that  God  appeared  unto  any ;  that  Moses  and  the 
Elders  sa^o  the  God  of  Israel;  and  that  Isaiah  saw  'the 
King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,'  or,  again,  that  others,  as  the 
Patriarch  Jacob  at  Bethel,  seeing  the  Angel  of  the 
Loud  saw  God  and  yet  lived ;  we  are  driven  to 
understand  it  of  God  in  special  relation  to  the  Creature, 
not  of  God  either  Father,  Son,  or  Holy  Ghost,  in  His 
absolute  Being  as  He  is  in  and  to  Himself;  and  so  of 
the  Second  Person  rather  than  the  First,  since  it  is 
through  Him  that  the  One  God  is  in  relation  with 
Creation  and  with  all  that  is  finite. 

Again,  It  is  a  common-place  of  Patristic  Theology 
that  the   Father  is   never  spoken  of  as   Sent,  but  is 

*  Mythical  Jnterp.  of  the  Gospels,  Appendix  E,  2ii(l  cd.  1861,  p.  359. 


1 66  and  that  the  'Angel  of  the  Lov.t)'       [lect. 

always  the  Sender,  and  the  Son  the  Sent,  in  an  especial 
manner.  On  this  ground  also  it  may  be  said  with 
confidence  that  the  Manifestations  of  the  Divine  to 
human  sense  suit  rather  the  Person  of  the  Son  than 
of  the  Father ;  especially  when  regarded  in  the  light 
of  the  subsequent  actual  Incarnation,  and  as  providen- 
tially intended  as  a  help  to  prepare  the  minds  of  men, 
l)oth  before  and  since  the  Incarnation,  for  the  full 
acceptance  of  that  stupendous  fact  itself. 

86.  For  it  should  be  carefully  noted  that  Holy  Scrip- 
ture makes  sjjecific  mention  of  one  who  is  preeminently, 
and  in  a  unique  sense,  TJie  Angel  of  the  Lord  (of 
Jehovah),  of  one  who  stands  alone  in  unapproachable 
dio-nitv,  one  in  whom  (to  use  the  language  of  Dr. 
Pusey)  '  God  accustomed  His  creatures  to  the  thought 
of  beholdino;  Himself  in  human  form.'  Such  a  title, 
like  that  of  Aj^ostle  (Heh.  iii.  i),  which  has  much  the 
same  meaning — a  meaning  expressive  not  of  nature,  but 
of  office — may  well  be  applied  to  the  Son  of  God,  Who 
Himself  speaks  so  distinctly  of  His  mission  of  mercy 
from  the  Father,  especially  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  in 
which  His  Divine  dignity  is  most  fully  declared. 

'  Nor  is  the  office  itself  of  an  ang-el  or  announcer  of 
the  Fathers  will  unbecoming  Him.  In  a  word,  God 
the  Father  could  not  have  become  an  angel  consistently 
with  His  prerogative  as  Father ;  for  then  He  would  have 
been  sent  by  another.  Who  yet  is  indebted  for  His 
authority  to  no  one.  To  the  Son  of  God,  however,  both 
the  name  of  God  altogether  belonsfs,  as  being  most  true 
God  ;  and  also  the  appellation  of  Angel,  forasmuch  as  Pie 
is  in  such  wise  very  God,  as  to  be  God  of  God,  and  was, 
therefore,   capable    of   receiving    and    undertaking,  con- 


IV.]  was  tJie  Logos.  167 

sistently  with  the  dignity  of  His  Person,  the  mission  and 
dispensation  committed  to  Him  by  God,  of  Whom  He  is. 
This,  without  doubt,  was  the  very  thing-  which  the 
Fathers  meant,  who  wrote  the  Synodical  Epistle  from 
the  council  of  Autioch  [a.  d.  269]  to  Paul  of  Samosata ; 
who  contend  that  He,  who  in  the  Old  Testament  from 
time  to  time  appeared  to  the  Fathers  and  conversed  with 
them,  was  the  Son  ;  "  Being-  attested  sometimes  as  an 
angel,  sometimes  as  the  Lord,  and  sometimes  God;  for 
it  were  impious  to  suppose  that  the  God  of  all  is  called 
an  angel ;  but  the  angel  of  the  Father  is  the  Son,  being 
Himself  Lord  and  God  ;  for  it  is  written,  '  The  Angel  of 
great  counsel'  (MeyaA?;?  ^ov\fJ9  ayyiKo^,  Isa.  ix.  6.  LXX.)" 
[Routh,  Heliq.  Sacr.  Vol.  II.  p.  470].  Here  the  holy 
Bishops  clearly  teach  that  the  Name  of  God  and  Lord 
are  applicable  to  the  Father  and  to  the  Son  alike,  but 
that  the  appellation  of  Angel,  as  indicating  a  mission 
from  another,  is  by  no  means  suited  to  the  Father,  who 
can  no  more  be  said  to  be  sent  than  to  be  born  of  another ; 
but  to  the  Son,  as  being  begotten  of  the  Father,  it  may 
be  rightly  ajjplied  ;  and  on  that  account  He  is  called  in 
the  Scriptures  "  the  Angel  of  great  counsel."  '  (Bull, 
Bi'f.  Nic.  Creed.  IV.  iii.  8.) 

Hengstenberg  .writes,  '  The  New  Testament  distin- 
guishes between  the  hidden  God  and  the  revealed  God — • 
the  Son  or  Logos — connected  with  the  former  by  oneness 
of  nature,  who  from  everlasting,  and  even  at  the  creation 
itself,  filled  up  the  immeasurable  distance  between  the 
Creator  and  the  creation, — Who  has  been  the  Mediator 
in  all  God's  relations  to  the  world, — Who  at  all  times, 
and  even  before  he  became  man  in  Christ,  has  been  the 
light  of  the  world,  and  to  whom,  specially,  was  com- 
mitted the  direction  of  the  economy  of  the  old  covenant. 
It  is  evident  that  this  doctrine  stands  in  the  closest 
connection  with  the  Christology, — that  it  forms  indeed 
its  theological  foundation  and  groundwork.  .  .  .  The 
question  then  is.  Whether  any  insight  into  this  doctrine 


i68  This  view  held  by  modem  writers.       [lect. 

is  to  be  found  as  early  as  in  the  Books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  Sound  Christian  Theology  has  discovered 
the  outlines  of  such  a  distinction  between  the  hidden  and 
the  revealed  Godj  in  many  passages  of  the  Old  Testament, 
in  which  mention  is  made  of  an  Angfel  or  Messeng'er  of 
God.'  (Christ ology  of  the  Old  Testament,  2nd  Ed.  Vol.  I. 
p.  107.)  On  this  whole  subject  the  student  may  usefully 
refer  to  this  work,  Vol.  I.  pp.  107-132;  and  Vol.  IV. 
Appendix  III.  p.  385  et  seqq.  He  deals  with  the 
arguments  of  two  principal  opponents  of  this  view  among 
the  German  biblical  writers,  Hofmann  and  Delitzsch, 
who  maintain  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  to  be  a  created  angel. 
Kurtz  [Geschichte  des  alien  Btmdes)  at  first  agreed  with 
Hengstenberg,  but  afterwards  adopted  the  view  of  Hof- 
mann and  Delitzsch.  Among  later  English  writers  the 
view  maintained  in  these  Lectures  is  held  by  Dr.  Gordon, 
Christ  as  made  known  to  the  Ancient  Church  (Edinburgh, 
1854);  Canon  Barry,  Article  Angel,  in  Smith's  Bible 
Dictionary,  i860;  Macdonald,  Introduction  to  the  Pen- 
tateuch, 1861;  Steward,  Mediatorial  Sovereignty,  1863; 
Dr.  Walsh,  Bishop  of  Ossory,  in  his  very  interesting 
work.  The  Angel  of  the  Lord,  or  Manifestations  of  Christ 
in  the  Old  Testament  (Seeley,  1876);  and  the  Speakers 
Commentary/ ;  also  by  the  Danish  Bishop  of  Seeland, 
Dr.  H.  Martensen,  in  his  Christian  Dogmatics,  1866. 

The  consideration,  in  combination,  of  the  numerous 
passages  in  which  these  phenomena  occur  seems  to 
compel  the  admission  that  their  language  is  not  satis- 
fied by  the  hypothesis  of  a  message  from  God  through 
a  created  angel  in  whom  God  was ;  through  whom,  act- 
ing in  His  Name,  God  spoke.  Their  force  is  cumulative. 
Such  an  hypothesis  cannot  (we  believe)  by  any  possi- 
bility be  made  to  fit  all.  And  if  it  does  not  fit  all,  if 
in  any  even  single  instance  it  is  admitted  that  God 


IV.]     Language  of  Dr.  Mill  and  Card.  Newman ;    1 69 

(that  is,  of  course,  the  Son)  manifested  Himself  in 
visible  human  or  angelic  form,  temporarily  assumed 
for  the  purpose  of  such  manifestation,  then,  obviously, 
nothing  is  gained  by  insisting  on  it  in  the  few  instances 
in  which  it  may  be  apparently  more  tenable.  Surely 
it  is  better  to  adopt  the  explanation  which  the  passages 
themselves  seem  naturally  to  invite,  or  even  to  demand; 
an  explanation  which  gives  a  consistent  meaning  to 
them  all,  and  which  has  ample  support  in  Christian 
exesesis  from  the  earliest  times,  not  to  mention  the 
singular  and  suggestive  paraphrase  so  general  in  the 
Targums  of  the  Name  of  the  Most  High  by  '  The  Word 
of  the  Lord.' 

Dr.  Mill  says  that  the  Christian  Fathers  '  frequently ' 
speak  '  of  the  Son  of  God  as  appearing-  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  as  the  special  object  of  the  provocation 
of  the  Israelites ; '  and  speaks  of  '  the  indubitable  in- 
stances of  His  manifestation  as  the  sole  imag-e  of  God  to 
man.'  Mythical  Interpretation  of  the  Gospels,  Appendix  E. 
p.  2)5^-  Compare  Newman  [Parochial  Sermons,  Vol.  II. 
p.  39,  On  the  Incarnation),  *  We  read  in  the  Patriarchal 
History  of  various  appearances  of  Ang-els  so  remarkable 
that  we  can  scarcely  hesitate  to  suppose  them  to  be 
gracious  visions  of  the  Eternal  Son.  For  instance ;  it 
is  said  that  '  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto ' 
Moses  '  in  a  flame  of  fire  out  of  the  midst  of  a  bush  ;' 
yet  presently  this  supernatural  Presence  is  called  '  the 
Lord,'  and  afterwards  reveals  His  name  to  Moses,  as  'the 
God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.'  On  the  other  hand, 
St.  Stephen  speaks  of  Him  as  '  the  Angel  which  appeared 
to  Moses  in  the  bush.'  Again  he  says  soon  after  that 
Moses  was  '  in  the  Church  in  the  Wilderness  with  the 
Angel  which  spake  to  him  in  the  mount  Sina;^  yet  in 
the  Book  of  Exodus  we  read,  '  Moses  went  up  unto  God, 


1 70  Hengstcnbcrg,  and  Prof.  Burto7t.         [lect. 

and  the  Lord  called  unto  him  out  of  the  mountain ; ' 
'  God  spake  all  these  words,  saying'  (Exod.  iii.  2  ;  Acts 
viii.  '^S-3^ '•  Exod.  xix.  3;  xx.  i.),  and  the  Hke.  Now, 
assuming",  as  we  seem  to  have  reason  to  assume,  that  the 
Son  of  God  is  herein  revealed  to  us,  as  graciously  minis- 
tering to  the  Patriarchs,  Moses  and  others,  in  angelic 
form,  the  question  arises,  What  was  the  nature  of  the 
appearance  ?  We  are  not  informed,  nor  may  we  venture 
to  determine;  still,  anyhow,  the  Angel  was  but  the 
temporary  outward  form  which  the  Eternal  Word 
assumed,  whether  it  was  of  a  material  nature,  or  a 
vision.' 

Compare  Hengstenberg,  ChnstGlogy,  Vol.  IV.  Appen- 
dix III.  p.  309.  '  That  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  is  the 
Logos  of  John,  who  is  connected  with  the  supreme  God 
by  unity  of  nature,  but  personally  distinct  from  him, 
was,  if  we  except  the  Fathers  mentioned  above  [i.  e. 
SS.  Augustine,  Jerome,  and  Gregory  the  Great],  the 
universal  doctrine  of  the  Early  Church.  [The  italics  are 
Hengstenberg's.]  The  Fathers  of  the  first  Synod  in 
Antioch  [a.d.  269],  in  a  letter  sent  to  Paul  of  Samosata 
before  his  deposition,  affirm  that  '  the  Angel  of  the 
Father,  being  himself  Lord  and  God,  \i^yakr\<i  ^ovKy\<i 
ayydXos  [the  angel  of  great  counsel,  LXX.  and  Vulg. 
Isa.  ix.  6.]  appeared  to  Abraham  and  to  Jacob,  and 
to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush.'  He  then  refers  to  the 
well-known  passages  of  Justin  Martyr,  quoted  also  by 
Bull  and  Burton,  viz.  Aiiol.  i.  ch.  6'^^  and  Dialogue  with 
Trjjpho,  §  59-61. 

87.  Following  Bishop  Bull,  Dr.  Burton  says  that 
'all  the  early  Fathers  agreed  with  Justin  Martyr  in 
referring  these  manifestations  of  Jehovah  to  God  the 
Son '  ^ ;  and  '  they  assert  (he  adds)  over  and  over  again, 

^  Testivionies  of  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers  to  the  Divinity  of  Christ, 
Sect.  23,  p.  37,  where  see  his  'references  to  the  works  of  the  Fathers' 
to  'prove  this  point.' 


IV.]   Bearing  of  this  truth  on  CJuistian  Evidences.   1 7 1 

that  the  Person  Who  appeared  to  the  Patriarchs  could 
not  be  an  angel,  because  He  is  called  God,  and  Jehovah, 
and  they  as  expressly  assert  that  he  who  revealed 
himself  as  God  and  Jehovah  was  not  the  Father,  but 
the  Son  ^ '. 

It  was  evidently  felt  among  believers  from  the  first 
that  the  Christian  argument  compelled  a  close  attention 
to  these  peculiar  and  remarkable  phenomena;  and, 
whether  we  are  or  are  not  to  include  them  as  among 
tlie  things  concerning  Himself  which,  in  all  the  Scrijjtures 
the  Risen  Lord  expounded  to  the  first  believers,  in  the 
Emmaus-walk  and  in  the  Upper  Room,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  whatever  as  to  what  was  the  current  view  re- 
specting them  in  the  Church  of  the  first  centuries  both 
before  the  Nicene  Council  and  after  it  (Ajo^endix,  Note  7). 
The  fact  that  such  was  the  current  view  throughout  a 
critical  and  formative  period,  when  Christianity  was"  on 
its  defence  against  Jew  and  Gentile  alike,  and  was 
engaged  in  the  gigantic  endeavour  to  win  both  to 
Christ,  is  surely  of  great  weight  as  showing  its  felt 
value  in  the  general  scheme  of  Christian  Evidences. 
Tlje  actual  Incarnation  of  God  is  a  fact  so  tremendous, 
and  one  so  difiicult,  as  the  history  of  Arianism  shows, 
for  the  human  mind  really  to  accept,  notwithstanding 
the  presence  of  the  idea  (of  course  in  unworthy  forms) 
over  a  large  area  of  heathen  thought,  that  we  may  well 
understand  that  the  first  preachers  and  Apologists  were 
glad  to  be  able  to  point  not  merely  to  a  growing  clear- 

'  Testimonies  of  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers  to  the  Divinity  0/  Christ, 
Sect.  23,  p.  40.  'This,'  says  Dr.  Pusey,  Daniel,  p.  515  uote,  'was 
the  conimon  belief  of  the  earliest  Fathers.' 


172  The  Incarnation  is  no  isolated  fact.       [lect. 

ness  of  prophetic  intimation  in  the  ancient  Scriptures, 
the  knowledge  of  which  was  then  widely  accessible  to 
Gentile  inquirers,  but  also  to  these  very  striking  '  pre- 
ludes'  of  it.  Understood  as  the  early  Christians  un- 
derstood them  they  do  very  greatly  prepare  the  way 
for,  and  support  a  belief  in,  tlie  actual  and  permanent 
Incarnation  of  the  same  Divine  Saviour  Whose  gracious 
intervention  they  loved  to  trace  from  the  very  begin- 
nings of  human  history.  They  felt  that  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  existed  before  it  rose  in  its  splendour ; 
that,  from  the  first  It  flashed  its  rays  above  the  dark 
horizon,  in  pledge  and  assurance  of  the  coming  meridian 
glory.  They  felt — and  it  is  surely  the  feeling  of  every 
thoug-htful  and  instructed  Christian — that  the  Incar- 
nation  is  no  strange,  sudden,  isolated,  unrelated  fact  in 
the  history  of  Man,  but  is  rather  the  centre  and  the 
key  of  all  History.  All  before  it  led  up  to  it :  all  that 
followed  grows  out  of  it  or  is  subordinate  to  it.  The 
very  grandeur  of  the  fact  requires  that  it  should  be  so. 
Nor  when  we  consider  how,  iclien  the  fulness  of  the  time 
ivas  come,  God  sent  forth  His  Son  made  of  a  woman,  can 
we  Christians  feel  it  any  derogation  from  the  Divine 
Dignity  of  the  Son,  or  at  all  unlike  Him  Whom  we 
worship,  Whom  we  love,  that  He  should,  at  the  crises 
of  the  great  Preparation,  have  previously  manifested 
Himself,  for  the  moment,  in  outward  seeming  of  human 
or  angelic  form '?  Only  through  this  thought,  we  are 
persuaded,  or  not  without  it,  shall  we  realize  to  the  full 
the  evidential  force  of  the  continuity  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments — a  truth  possibly  somewhat  lost  sight 
of  in  days  when  an  almost  too  exclusive  and  dispropor- 


IV.]  Passages  from  the  New   Testament  173 

tionate  attention  is  bestowed  on  the  New  Testament. 
Only  thus  shall  we  make  the  Ancient  Eevelation  bear 
its  due  and  intended  part  in  sustaining  the  great  argu- 
ment that  an  Incarnation  was  to  be  expected,  as  the 
means  of  Man's  Salvation,  and  that  He  Who  did  become 
incarnate  was  in  very  truth  Divine,  God  of  God,  Light 
of  Light,  Very  God  of  Very  God. 

88.  At  this  point  let  us  ask  ourselves  what  grounds 
w^e  of  this  day,  at  this  distance  from  Apostolic  tradition, 
can  discern  in  Holy  Scripture  for  such  a  view.  The 
special  grounds  derived  from  the  Old  Testament  will 
become  apparent  as  we  examine  the  narratives  them- 
selves of  these  occurrences ;  for  we  shall  find  the  de- 
scriptions of  them  to  be  so  worded  as  to  compel  us  to 
distinguish  between  the  Sender  and  the  Sent,  to  admit 
the  Divine  Character  of  the  Sent,  and,  if  so,  then,  of 
course,  to  recognise  in  Him  the  Person  of  the  Son. 

Looking  at  the  New  Testament  it  is  necessary  that 
due  weight  should  be  given  to  the  following  passages: — • 
In  the  Prologue  of  Saint  John's  Gospel:  In  the  Word 
icas  Life;  and  the  Life  ivas  the  Light  of  men,  and  the 
Light  shineth  in  the  darkness  and  the  darkness  compre- 
hended It  not The  true  Light  Which  lighteth  every 

man  ivas  coining  into  the  world.  He  was  in  the  ivorld, 
and  the  world  ivas  made  hy  Him,  and  the  world  knew 
Him  not.  These  words  we  believe  to  point  to  the  pre- 
existent  and  more  general  operation  of  the  Logos  among 
mankind  ;  but,  if  so,  then  a  fortiori  they  include  an 
operation  among  His  own.  His  special  operation  to- 
wards the  Chosen  Nation  is  alluded  to  in  the  immedi- 
ately following  words,  He  came  unto  His  own,  and  His 


I  74  which  indicate  the  close  relation  [lect, 

o-wn  received  Him  not.  On  the  first  occasion  on  which 
the  Jews  saw  a  gleam  of  His  latent  claim  to  an  unique 
relation  to  the  Father  He  said  My  Father  ivorketh  even 
until  now,  and  I  work  {St.  John  v.  1 7),  showing  His 
co-operation  throughout  with  the  Father,  especially  in 
works  of  mercy ;  and  showing  at  the  same  time  the 
mystery,  within  the  One  co-equal  Godhead,  of  His 
Filial  Subordination  to  the  Father; — The  Son  can  do 
nothing  of  Himself,  hut  what  He  seeth  the  Father  do ;  for 
ivhat  things  soever  He  doeth,  these  also  doeth  the  Son  like- 
wise ;  summing  up  with  His  unparalleled  claim,  Tliat  all 
men  should  honour  the  Son,  even  as  they  honour  the 
Father.  He  that  honour eth  not  the  Son  Jionoureth  not  the 
Father  tvhich  sent  Him.  Again,  the  Lord  Himself  says, 
Yotir  Father  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  My  day,  and  he 
saio  it  and  was  glad  {St.  John  viii.  56),  a  passage  which, 
although  its  exact  meaning  is  uncertain,  is  frequently 
used  by  the  Fathers  in  proof  of  the  Pre-existence  of 
Christ.  These  passages,  however,  are  general.  More 
closely  bearing  on  the  point  before  us  is  that  most 
touching  utterance  of  the  rejected  Christ,  wherein,  look- 
ing back  through  long  preceding  dispensations  of  grace 
and  mercy  (for  the  language  will  not  endure  a  restric- 
tion of  its  reference  to  the  short  three  years'  ministry 
in  Galilee  and  Judsea),  the  Lord,  in  the  language  of  di- 
vinest  pity,  at  a  supremely  critical  moment,  pronounces 
His  parting  words  of  irrevocable  doom,  as,  for  the  last 
time.  He  leaves  the  Temple,  once  His  Father  s  House, 
in  the  evening  of  the  Tuesday  before  His  Passion : — 

0  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  that  kUlefh  the  jorophets, 
And  stoneth  them  that  are  sent  iinto  her, 


IV.]  of  Christ  to  the  Ancient  Chtwck.  175 

How  often  willed  I  to  gather  up  thy  children  together. 
Even  as  a  mother-bird  gathereth  up  together  her  own  brood 

under  her  tvings. 
And  ye  willed  not ! 
Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate. 

[St.  Matt,  xxiii.  '^j.    St.  Luke  xiii.  34.) 

This  was  the  summing-up  of  a  long  history,  which 
dated  from  the  far  past ;  for  the  context  carries  back 
His  words  Hoiv  often  to  the  days  of  righteous  Ahel,  the 
first  typical  martyr-witness  to  the  one  Atoning  Death. 

With  these  words  of  the  Son  Himself  as  to  His  past 
work  in  the  world  and  in  the  Church  we  may  compare 
the  saying  of  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  Hebrews  (xi. 
26),  that  Moses  esteemed  the  reproach  of  Christ  greater 
riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt.  The  expression  the 
reproach  of  Christ  may  indeed  be  variously  understood ; 
but  the  general  implied  reference  to  a  close  relation  of 
Christ  to  His  ancient  People  is  undoubted. 

Dean  Alford,  ad  loc,  says,  '  Christ  was  ever  present  in 
and  amoni^  God's  people  ;  and  thus  De  Wette  well  and 
finely  says  here,  "  The  Writer  calls  the  reproach  which 
Moses  snflered,  the  reproach  of  Christ,  as  Paul,  2  Cor. 
i.  5,  Col.  i.  24,  calls  the  sufferings  of  Christians  the 
suffering's  of  Christ,  i.  e.  of  Christ  dwelling-,  striving', 
suffering,  in  His  Church  as  in  His  body ;  to  which  this 
reproach  is  referred  according-  to  the  idea  of  the  unity  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  of  the  Eternal  Christ 
[the  Logos]  already  living-  and  rein^ning  in  the  former." ' 

Dr.  Moulton,  ad  loc.  (in  Bishop  Ellicott's  iS'eiv  Testament 
Commentary  for  English  Eeaders).  says,  'Throughout  the 
wiiole    of  tiieir   history   the    people    of  Israel   were   the 

people  of  the  Christ He  who  was  to  appear  in  the 

last  days  as  the  Messiah  was  already  in  the  midst  of 
Israel  [^John  i.  10).' 


176  The  ' spiritical  Rock'  was  Christ.        [lect. 

And  Saint  Paul  speaks  more  expressly  in  i  Cov.  x. 
of  a  close  relation  of  the  ancient  Israel  to  Christ ;  i .  A 
relation  of  mercy,  m  the  words  Tliey  drank  continually 
{eTTivov)  out  of  a  sj^iritual  Bock  accompanying  them,  and 
that  Bock  loas  Christ. 

Bishop  Wordsworth  of  Lincoln,  ad  loc. :  '  The  testi- 
mony of  Holy  Scripture  is  uniform  to  the  effect,  that  in 
their  wandering's  through  the  wilderness,  the  Israelites 
were  fed  with  a  constant  supply  of  Bread  from  Heaven , 

and  of  Water  from  the  Boch Wherever  the  Israelites 

were,  there  was  a  Rock, — not  moving  from  place  to  pdace, 
....  but  one  ready  to  supply  them  with  water,  by  the 
Divine  imvardly-working  power  of  the  ever-present 
spiritual  agency  and  virtue  of  Christ  which  follotved 
them,   and    made   the    material   rock   to   gush    out  with 

water It   was  another  and    spiritual   Rock  which 

wrought  the  whole  work,  and  that  was  Christ,  ever 
present  with  them.' 

Alford,  ad  loc. :  '  So  the  Targum  on  Isaiah  xvi.  i  : 
"  They  shall  bring-  gifts  to  the  Messiah  of  the  Israelites, 
who  shall  be  strong,  inasmuch  as  in  the  desert  he  was 
the  Rock,  the  Church  of  Zion  ; "  so  also  in  Wisdom  x. 
15  ff.,  the  wisdom  of  God  is  said  to  have  been  present  in 
Moses,  to  have  led  them  through  the  wilderness,  &e. 
That  the  Messiah,  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant,  was 
present  with  the  Church  of  the  Fathers,  and  that  his 
upholding"  power  was  manifested  in  miraculous  inter- 
ferences for  their  welfare,  was  a  truth  acknowledged  no 
less  by  the  Jew  than  by  the  Christian.' 

Canon  Evans,  in  The  Speakers  Commentary,  ad  loc, 
but  speaking  more  particularly  of  the  Manna :  '  No  doubt 
this  "  corn  of  heaven "  was,  in  a  way  unknown  to  us, 
g-iven  by  Him  who  fifteen  centuries  later  gave  Himself 
the  "true  bread"  from  heaven.  The  Word,  not  yet  in- 
carnate, was  ever  moving  in  the  midst  of  Israel.  But 
this   presence  of  Christ   does    not   exclude   the  idea  of 


IV.]         The  operation  of  the  Father,  the  Son,         177 

angelic  mediation.  Inasmuch  as  the  manna  is  called 
"  the  bread  of  angels,"  the  power  of  the  Word  in  this 
oft-repeated  miracle  may  have  been  put  forth  by  the 
.  mediation  of  angels  ministering  to  Him :  compare  Jacob's 
ladder.  This  idea  is  in  keeping  with  the  fact  that  the 
Law  of  Sinai  was  ordained  by  a  twofold  agency,  (i)  of 
angels  clustering  in  the  foreground  of  Jehovah,  (2)  of 
Moses  standing  in  the  foreground  of  Israel ;  but  as  below 
Moses  was  the  congregation,  so  above  the  angels  was 
the  Word,  and  above  the  Word  was  God;  see  ch.  iii,  22.' 
See  the  Notes  on  the  whole  passage. 

2.  A  relation  of  judgment,  in  the  words  NeitJier  let 
us  temj)t  Christ  (or  the  Lord)  as  some  of  them  also 
temi^ted,  and  ifere  destroyed  of  serpents. 

Here  Bishop  Wordsworth,  reading  XptoroV,  notes : — 
'  From  this  and  other  passages  (e.  g.  Heb.  xi.  27)  the 
Fathers  inferred  that  the  Eternal  Word  of  God  revealed 
Himself  before  His  Incarnation  by  Angels  to  the 
Patriarchs,  and  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Old 
Dispensation.  See  S.  Cyril,  Cat.  x.  6,  y  ;  Euseb.  E.  H. 
1-3 ;  and  Bp.  Fell  here.' 

89.  There  are,  however,  two  points  of  essential  im- 
portance whicli  should  here  be  made  clear  and  carefully 
borne  in  mind. 

First :  That  in  speaking,  whether  of  the  Tlieoplianies 
in  particular,  or  of  the  ancient  Economies  in  general, 
we  do  not  in  any  way,  even  in  thought,  separate, 
though  we  do  distinguish,  the  operation  of  the  Son 
from  the  operation  of  the  Father  or  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  operation  of  One  is  the  operation,  the  co-operation, 
of  All.  For  the  All-holy  Three,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  are  One   in  Purpose,  One  in  Will,  One 

N 


178  and  the  Spirit^  is  one  operation.          [lect. 

in  Act.  Hence  in  speaking  in  a  special  manner  of  the 
presence  and  action  of  the  Eternal  Son  we  must  not 
be  understood  to  thereby  excUide,  even  in  thought, 
the  co-operative  presence  and  action  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  only  we  say  that  their 
presence  and  action  are  exhibited  in  an  especial  way, 
in  an  exclusive  manner,  through  the  Son ;  that  He  is 
always  the  Mediator  of  their  action. 

Bishop  Bull,  Bef.  Nic.  Creed,  IV.  iv,  9  [Library  of  Ang.- 
Catli.  Theol.  Vol.  II.  p.  641),  says,  'The  Father  and  the 
Son  are  in  such  sense  One,  as  that  the  Son  is  in  the 
Father  and  the  Father  in  the  Son;  and  that  the  One 
cannot  be  separated  from  the  Other.  This  mode  of  union 
the  Greek  Theologians  call  ■n€pix(Lpr](Ti<i,  and  the  Latins, 
i.  e.  the  Schoolmen,  some  circumincession,  others  circwm- 
insessio?/.''  And  Cardinal  Newman,  saying  that  'This 
doctrine  of  the  colnherence,  as  protecting  the  Unity 
without  trenching  on  the  perfections  of  the  Son  and 
Spirit,  may  even  be  called  the  characteristic  of  Catholic 
Trinitarianism,  as  opposed  to  all  counterfeits,  whether 
philosophical,  Arian  or  Oriental ; '  quotes  (through  Pe- 
tavius)  from  St.  Basil  as  follows,  *  Neither  can  He  [the 
Son]  be  severed  from  the  Father,  Who  is  ever  of  and  in 
the  Father ;   nor  again  disunited  from  His  own  Spirit, 

Who   operates  all  things  by  means  of  it For  we 

must  not  conceive  separation  or  division  in  any  way,  as 
if  either  the  Son  could  be  supposed  without  the  Father, 
or  the  Spirit  disunited  from  the  Son '  (Newman,  Arians,  II. 
iii.  p.  101).  And,  '  In  His  eternal  union  with  God  there 
was  no  distinction  of  will  and  work  between  Him  and 
His  Father ;  as  the  Father's  life  was  the  Son's  life,  and 
the  Father's  glory  the  Son's  also,  so  the  Son  was  the 
very  Word  and  Wisdom  of  the  Father,  His  Power  and 
Co-equal  Minister  in  all  things,  the  same  and  not  the 
same    as    He    Himself.'     (Newman,    Parochial  Sermom^ 


IV,]      The  Divine  Essence  of  tJie  Son  is  invisible ;     179 

Vol.  III.  p.   180,   Sermon   XII,   on  The  Ilumiliation  of 
the  Eternal  Son.     See  Aj^j^endix,  Note  8.) 

Secondly :  When  we  say  that  it  was  especially  the 
Son  Who  spoke,  Who  appeared  in  visible  form,  angelic 
or  human,  we  must  not  be  thought  for  an  instant  to 
mean  that  the  Son  of  God  is,  as  such,  and  in  His 
Divine  Essence,  more  visible,  more  comprehensible, 
less  infinite,  than  the  other  Two  Persons  of  the  All- 
holy  Trinity.  His  Godhead  is  equal,  His  Majesty  co- 
eternal  :  He  is  of  one  Substance  with  the  Father. 
What  is  meant  is,  That  it  has  been  His  gracious  part 
to  veil  His  essential  Divine  Majesty  and  glory  in 
order  to  enter  into  close  relation  with  His  creature 
Man,  in  His  loving  condescension  and  for  the  purposes  of 
those  successive,  and  progressive,  dispensations  of  mercy 
which  it  was  His  part  to  conduct  and  to  administer ; 
and  that  it  was  His  part  to  do  this,  and  to  be  especially 
sent,  as  He  Himself  repeatedly  declares  He  was  sent, 
by  the  Father  to  do  this,  because  He  is  the  Word, 
the  Wisdom,  the  Son,  the  Image  of  the  Father.  That 
is  to  say,  the  special  intra-divine  and  eternal  relation 
in  which  the  Person  of  the  Son  stands  to  the  Person 
of  the  Father  in  the  one  co-equal  and  co-eternal  Divine 
Being,  the  essential  relation  whereby  He  is  the  Son 
and  not  the  Father,  is,  as  soon  as  created  existence 
is  postulated,  the  necessary  foundation  of  a  special 
necessary  relation  to  it,  of  a  relation  of  being  between 
it  and  the  Father,  a  relation  of  Mediation.  We  must 
conceive  of  the  Filial  relation  as  eternal  and  intra- 
divine  ;  that  is,  we  must  conceive  of  it  as  not  neces- 
sitating  any   Mediatorial   relation,   finite   and  created 

N  2 


i8o      yet  He  reveals  God,  being  His  'Image!    [lect. 

existence  not  being  conceived  of  as  necessary ;  but, 
once  given  the  existence  of  finite  life,  then — so  the 
Bible  Bevelation  compels  us  to  think — there  arises 
forthwith  a  special  relatedness  of  the  Son  of  God  to 
the  Universe,  because  He  is  the  Word  and  Wisdom 
of  the  Father,  and  through  Him  the  operation  of  the 
Father  passes  evermore,  and  that  exclusively,  whether  in 
creating,  or  in  continually  sustaining  and  administering 
the  Universe  ;  and  through  Him  also,  and  only,  passes 
(what  is  of  even  more  consequence,  since  the  very 
existence  of  the  Universe  is  a  means  to  it  as  an  end) 
the  progressive  Self-Revelation  of  God  to  the  Universe. 
Perhaps  we  shall  not  be  wrong  in  supposing  that  it 
may  be  with  some  reference  to  this  latter  function 
of  the  Second  Person,  a  function  so  appropriate  to 
His  Sonship,  that  He  is  so  pointedly  and  significantly 
designated  the  ^Ikoov,  the  Image,  the  Adequate  Pre- 
sentation of  God.  We  cannot  doubt  that,  in  so  far 
as  angels  or  men  are  blessed,  in  their  hearts  and  minds, 
with  that  illumination  which  comes  from  the  know- 
ledge of  the  glory  of  God,  they  are  so  in  so  far  as,  for 
them — for  each  according  to  his  growing  capacity  of 
apprehending  and  receiving  it — that  glory  is  revealed 
in  the  Face  of  Jesus  Christ  (2  Cor.  iv.  6). 

'  The  primitive  writers,  with  an  unsuspicious  yet  re- 
verend expHcitness,  take  for  granted  the  essentially 
ministrative  character  of  the  ^iroVrao-t?  or  Person  of  both 
Son  and  Spirit  as  compared  with  the  Father's ;  still  of 
course  speaking  of  them  as  included  in  the  Divine  Unity, 
not  as  external  to  it.  Thus  Irenaeus,  clear  and  unde- 
niable as  is  his  orthodoxy,  yet  declares,  that  "  The  Father 


IV.]      Different  view  suggested  by  S.  Augustine      i8i 

is  ministered  to  in  all  thing's  by  His  own  Offspring- 
and  Likeness,  the  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  the  Word  and 
Wisdom,  of  Whom  all  ang-els  are  servants  and  subjects." 
In  like  manner  an  virripeaLa  is  commonly  ascribed  to  the 
Son  and  Spirit,  and  a  j)raecej)lio,  ^ovXrjai^,  and  diKrjixa  to 
the  Father,  by  Justin,  Irenseus,  Clement,  Origen,  and 
Methodius,  altogether  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Post-Nicene 
authorities  already  cited  ;  and  without  any  risk  of  mis- 
leading the  reader,  as  soon  as  the  Second  and  Third 
Persons  are  understood  to  be  internal  to  the  Divine 
Mind,  connatnralia  instrumental  obedient  (at  most)  in  no 
stronger  sense  than  when  the  human  will  is  said  to  be 
directed  and  influenced  by  the  reason.  Gregory  Na- 
zianzen  lays  down  the  same  doctrine  with  an  explanation, 
in  the  following  sentence:  "It  is  plain,"  he  says,  "that 
those  designs  which  the  Father  conceives,  the  Word 
fulfils ;  not  as  a  servant,  or  not  entering  into  them,  but 
with  full  knowledge  and  a  master's  power,  and,  to  speak 
more  suitably,  as  if  He  were  the  Father."  (Bull,  Bef.  II. 
xiii.  lo.)'     (Newman,  Avians,  II.  iii.  p.  97.) 

90.  It  seems  to  have  been  some  anxiety  on  these 
two  points  which  led  Saint  Augustine,  in  some  pas- 
sages at  least  of  his  writings,  and  more  especially  in 
his  Treatise  on  the  Holy  Trinity,  to  take  on  this  sub- 
ject a  line  somewhat  different  from  that  which  was 
universal  among  Christian  thinkers  and  writers  before 
the  Nicene  Council,  and  general  for  long  afterwards. 
And  in  his  own  portion  of  Christendom,  where  (owing 
to  tlie  decreasing  intercourse  with  the  East,  and  the 
growing  ignorance  of  the  Greek  language,  consequent 
on  the  break-up  of  the  Koman  imperial  system)  his 
authority  became  too  exclusively  dominant,  he  was 
extensively  followed,  in  this  as  in  other  matters,  by 
later  Western  and  ultra-Latin  theologians,  here  as  else- 


1 82  from  fear  of  A  riant sm.  [lect. 

where  wanting  the  grandeur  and  breadth  and  culture 
of  the  great  Greek  Fathers.  He  seems  to  have  feared 
that  to  dwell  much  on  the  thought  of  a  near  and 
visible,  though  only  occasional,  converse  of  the  Son 
of  God  with  niankmd  in  earlier  times,  though  a  decisive 
help  towards  establishing  His  Pre-existence,  might, 
after  the  experience  of  the  Arian  controversy,  have 
tended  to  weaken  men's  hold  of  the  cardinal  truth 
of  His  essential  Divine  dignity,  and  to  derogate  from 
His  Divine  Glory.  The  Arians  (he  tells  us)  argued 
— though  it  is  obviously  an  inference  that  does  not 
even  apparently  follow  from  the  phenomena  of  which 
we  are  speaking — That  the  Son  was  'visibiHs  per  suam 
substantiam,'  and  therefore  inferior  to  the  Father, 
different  from  Him,  mutable,  and  even  mortal  ;  and, 
again,  that  His  being  '  sent'  by  the  Father  showed 
a  lesser  dignity  and  a  lower  nature.  Hence  in  speaking 
of  the  Ajpparitiones  he  hesitates  and  wavers  in  his  view 
as  to  which  of  the  Divine  Persons  may  have  more 
especially  manifested  Himself  on  any  such  occasion. 
He  argues  that  it  may  have  been  the  Father,  or  it 
may  have  been  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  dwells  much, 
and  rightly,  on  what  we  have  seen  is  an  important 
truth,  the  invariably  united  co-operative  action  of  the 
Three  Divine  Persons.  His  reasoning  is  evidently 
constrained  by  the  pressure  of  recent  and  contempo- 
raneous controversy ;  for  Arianism  was  stronger  per- 
haps, in  his  day,  in  the  West  than  in  the  East.  For 
this  reason,  as  well  as  because  it  is  a  deflection  from 
the  earlier  and  more  general  view,  it  seems  natural 
to  distrust  it.     It  is  surely  no  more  derogatory  to  the 


IV.]  Hypothesis  of  a  created  angel  183 

Divine  dignity  of  tlie  Logos  to  believe  that  He  did, 
on  adequate  occasion,  from  time  to  time,  and  for 
a  time,  as  the  working  out  of  His  merciful  purpose 
towards  our  race  required,  assume,  or  manifest  Himself 
in,  or  through,  a  visible  form  to  Man,  than  to  believe 
that  He  assumed  our  nature  permanently  in  a  real 
Incarnation.  Nor  can  there  be  any  risk — a  risk  of 
W'hich,  clearly,  the  earlier  Christian  writers  are  wholly 
unconscious — of  such  a  belief  tending  to  unw^orthy 
conceptions  of  His  dignity  and  Person,  when  once  the 
two  cautions  on  which  we  liave  insisted  are  duly  con- 
sidered and  remembered. 

91.  The  hypothesis  that  he  who  was  seen  was  a 
created  angel  commissioned  to  sj^eak  in  the  Name  of 
the  Lord,  has  been  based  on  the  authority  of  Saint 
Augustine.  A  late  theology  in  both  East  and  West, 
coinciding  wnth  a  wholly  unscri^^tural  cultus  of  the 
Blessed  Angels,  has  favoured  this  view,  which  har- 
monizes with  and  lends  itself  to  the  support  of  super- 
stitious ideas  ;  while  in  earlier  days,  when  the  point 
which  was  pressed  was  the  (supposed)  creaturely  char- 
acter of  the  Ano'el  of  the  Lord  rather  than  the  reverence 
and  worship  recorded  to  have  been  offered  to  and 
accepted  by  him,  it  was  naturally  adopted  by  the 
Arians,  with  whose  conceptions  of  the  Son  of  God  it 
seemed  most  to  ngree. 

On  the  general  subject  of  this  Lecture  Hengstenberg's 
Appendix  III,  on  Tlie  JJlvi7iifj/  of  tlie  Mess'iali  hi  the 
Old  Tcslamenl,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his  Clir'istologi/, 
should  be  studied.  His  statement,  that  Origen  favoured 
the  view  that  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  was  '  not  a  Person 


1 84  adopted  by  some  later  writers  [lect. 

connected  with  God  by  unity  of  essence,  but  an  inferior 
anerel  throuo-h  whom  God  issues  and  executes  his  com- 
mands,  and  who  speaks  and  acts  in  his  name,'  seems 
based  on  insufficient  evidence.  Of  Fathers  who  adopted 
this  novel  view  (first  developed  by  S.  Augustine)  he  names 
only  SS.  Jerome  and  Gregory  the  Great ;  adding,  '  It 
was  afterwards  defended  by  several  Jewish  commentators, 
e.  g.  Abenezra.  ....  It  was  then  adopted  by  many  Roman 
Catholic    expositors,    as   well  as   by  the    Socinians   and 

Arminians,  especially  Grotius  and  ClericHs And  in 

modern  days,  also,  it  has  not  lacked  defenders.  Many 
rationalistic  writers  declared  themselves  in  its  favour, 
e.g.  Vater,  Gesenius,  Bretschneider  .  .  .  Baumgarten- 
Crusius,  Hofmann.  .  .  .  The  reasons  which  led  to  the 
adoption  of  this  hypothesis  were  very  various.  The 
Fathers  already  mentioned  believed  that  it  was  rendered 
necessary  by  certain  passages  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  Roman  Catholic  writers  were  actuated  by  the  wish 
to  secure  a  biblical  foundation  for  the  worship  of  angels. 
The  Socinians,  like  the  Jewish  commentators  before 
them,  were  impelled  by  their  dread  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  The  Arminians  were  influenced  partly  by  their 
low  estimate  of  the  worth  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
partly  by  their  secret  Socinian  tendencies ;  and  the 
rationalists  by  their  dislike  of  everything  deep,  and  their 
antipathy  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which  could  not 
be  true,  unless  the  way  had  been  prepared  for  it  from  the 
very  first  commencement  of  revelation,  and  the  truth  of 
which  would  be  rendered  a  priori  more  probable,  if  this 
could  be  proved  to  have  been  the  case.' 

But  the  phenomena  of  the  passages  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture in  which  these  occurrences  are  related,  phenomena 
which,  to  be  rightly  apprehended,  must  be  studied 
as  a  whole  and  in  their  collective  weight,  will  not 
really  lend  themselves  to  this  hypothesis.  The  iden- 
tification of  Himself  by  the  Speaker  with  the  Divine 


IV.]  not  really  tenable.  185 

Being  in  tlie  language  He  uses,  whether  of  promise 
or  of  threat;  the  acceptance  of  worship  without  reproof, 
or  even  the  insistance  upon  it,  (so  sharply  contrasted 
with  the  decisive  rejection  of  it  when  tendered  under 
a  mistake  to  the  created  angel  in  the  Apocalypse  ;)  the 
awful  undefinable  sense  of  nearness  to  God,  and  of 
surprise  at  having  seen  God  and  yet  lived,  on  the 
part  of  the  favoured  subjects  of  these  manifestations ; 
the  permanent  memorials  of  these  occurrences,  in  sig- 
nificant names  of  places,  or  in  objects  specially  set  up 
to  commemorate  them ;  all  these  features  combine  with 
irresistible  force  to  render  it  untenable. 

Another  reason  why  the  supposition  of  a  created 
angel  simply  acting  as  a  representative  ambassador 
of  God  is  untenable  is  derived  from  the  consideration 
of  those  passages  in  which  the  outward  form  seen  is 
expressly  stated  to  have  been  human.  It  is  not  sup- 
posed that  in  these  instances  any  actual  living  human 
personality  was  employed  as  the  temporary  instrument 
of  the  manifestation.  Such  a  supposition  is  obviously 
out  of  the  question,  on  account  of  their  transient 
nature,  among  other  reasons.  Yet  clearly  these  in- 
stances are  of  the  same  class  as  those  in  which  there 
is  express  mention  of  Tlie  Angel  of  the  Lord.  Neither 
is  it  doubted  that  the  outward  visible  form  and  appear- 
ance of  Tlie  Angel  of  the  Lord  were  really  essentially 
human,  however,  even  unspeakably,  more  glorious  and 
beautiful ;  for  the  term  angel,  it  must  be  remembered, 
is  not  necessarily  descriptive  of  nature,  but  only  of 
office  and  function ;  and  the  outward  appearance  of  the 
angels,  as  seen  by  men,  is  always  described  in   Holy 


1 86  Anthropomorphic  language  of  H.  Scripture,  [lect. 

Scripture  as  human.  Thus  it  comes  to  the  same  thing 
whether  it  be  said  that  tlie  Lord  a^'peared  in  human 
or  in  ano-elic  form.  In  either  case  what  was  seen  was 
a  human  form ;  from  which  it  would  seem  most 
naturally  to  follow  that  it  was  only  a  form  temporarily 
assumed  as  the  tabernacle  and  visible  instrument  of 
a  veiled  Personality,  which  was  really  that  of  the  Son 
of  God. 

'  It  must  have  been  somehow  in  connexion  with  the 
idea  expressed  in  man,  as  created  after  the  Divine 
image,  and  also  in  view  of  a  want  (Ps.  xvii.  15),  which, 
originating,  no  doubt,  in  that  primal  constitution,  was 
intended  to  find  its  full  satisfaction  in  the  assumption  of 
the  human  nature  by  the  Divine,  but  which  ignorantly 
sought  a  substitute  in  deifying  man,  that,  whenever 
God  visibly  appeared  to  any  of  his  people,  it  was  under 
the  human  form  (see  Gen.  xviii.).  To  the  same  cause 
must  be  ascribed  the  extensive  use  of  anthropomorphic 
and  anthropopathic  language  in  the  Scriptures,  especially 
in  the  Pentateuch,  as  containing  the  earliest  revelations. 
This  mode  of  describing  the  Divine  Being  many  regard 
as  conveying  only  unworthy  and  confused  ideas  of  the 
Spiritual  and  Unimpassioned,  without  at  all  taking  into 
consideration  whether  such  language  may  not  even  be  a 
necessity  arising  as  well  from  man's  limited  conceptions 
as  from  his  original  constitution.  But  without  entering 
here  into  a  discussion  of  this  point,  it  may  be  remarked 
that  the  use  of  such  language,  corrected  as  it  is  by  other 
express  declarations,  constitutes  in  reality  one  of  the 
chief  excellences  of  Scripture,  evincing  its  adaptation  to 
the  capacities  of  its  readers,  and  is,  moreover,  not  only 
consistent  with,  but  indispensable  to  the  idea  which  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  the  revealed  scheme — that  man  is 
the  image  of  the  Creator,  and  so  the  chief  medium  for 
disclosing  the  Divine  glory  and  perfections,  and  in  the 


IV.]         Reasons  of  cessation  of  '  Theophanies!         187 

realisation  of  which  idea  through  Him,  who  is  absolutely 
"  the  image  "  of  God.  being  God  and  man  in  one  person, 
revelation  reaches  its  completion.  Indeed,  a  suiRcient 
vindication  of  the  language  in  question  is  the  distinct 
and  correct  conceptions  which  it  conveys  of  the  Great 
Being  thus  brought  down  to  human  apprehension,  and 
quite  different  from  anything  to  which  reason  or  i)hilo- 
sophy  has  ever  attained.  In  such  cases  the  infinite  and 
the  personal  are  usually  antagonistic.  Thus,  whereas  the 
personality  of  God  vanishes  in  the  pantheism  of  India, 
his  infinity  is,  on  the  other  hand,  lost  in  the  polytheism 
of  Greece.  Not  so,  however,  with  the  God  of  the  Bible, 
who  is  thus  seen  to  have  been  no  creation  of  human 
reason,  but  is  in  every  respect  a  self-manifestation  of  the 
Invisible.'  (Macdonald,  Introduction  to  the  Pentateuch^ 
Book  III.  Ch.  i.  Sect.  i.  Vol.  II.  p.  22). 

92.  Should  an  explanation  be  asked  of  the  cessation 
of  these  peculiar  manifestations,  it  is  probably  to  be 
found  in  the  completed  organiza.tion  of  the  Jewish 
Church  in  its  settled  form ;  especially  as  marked  by 
the  institution,  in  the  person  of  Samuel  and  onwards, 
of  the  Prophetic  Order,  as  the  ordinary  channel  of 
special  and  authoritative  communication  from  God  to 
His  People.  The  case  is  parallel  to  the  presence  gene- 
rally of  the  Miraculous  in  the  initial  epochs  of  religious 
history,  Jewish  and  Christian,  and  its  absence  after- 
wards. And,  noting  in  the  beginnings  of  the  Christian 
Church  the  sjDCcial,  though  occasional,  manifestations  of 
the  Risen,  and  even  of  the  Ascended  Christ  (see  Lecture 
VII),  we  should  on  similar  grounds  expect  their  non- 
occurrence afterwards  in  the  normal  settled  life  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  partly  because  the  permanent  Incar- 
nation of  the  Son  of  God,  for  which  the  Thcophanies 


1 88        Similar  reasons  operative  in  New  Test.     [lect. 

were  a  preparation,  had  actually  taken  place,  partly 
because,  in  and  through  the  Life  and  Work  of  the 
Incarnate  Son,  we  possess  a  complete  Revelation — 
complete  for  our  present  stage ;  and  partly  because, 
in  the  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  Church,  and  in 
the  Sacramental  System  ordained  by  Christ,  of  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  informing  Power,  we  possess, 
individually  and  corporately,  a  continued  and  constant 
real,  supernatural,  spiritual  Presence,  nay  an  In- 
dwelling within  us,  of  Christ,  which  far  exceeds  the 
nearness  and  the  blessedness  of  His  visible  earthly  Pre- 
sence to  our  senses.  Yet  in  the  early  beginnings  of  our 
Faith,  in  the  first  generation,  ere  yet  the  infant  Church 
was  settled  and  organized,  the  Ascended  Lord  did  visibly 
show  Himself  in  special  and  exceptional  circumstances. 
To  His  first  martyr  He  vouchsafed  the  vision  of  His 
Glory  in  His  ready  human  sympathy  and  love ;  to  the 
persecutor  Saul,  in  His  dazzling  Majesty  and  Power ; 
to  Ananias,  in  vision,  directing  him  to  baptize  the  now 
cliosen  vessel  who  should  bear  His  once  hated  Name 
before  the  Gentiles,  and  kings,  and  the  children  of  Israel ; 
and  not  seldom  afterwards,  to  Saint  Paul  himself,  (for  he 
was  favoured  with  abundant  visions  and  revelations  of 
the  Lord,  i  Cor.  xii.  i  and  7  ;)  and  yet  once  again,  to 
the  beloved  Apostle,  an  exile  in  Patmos/or  the  word  of 
God,  and  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  these 
manifestations  were  exceptional.  The  normal  life  of 
the  Militant  Church  is  the  life  of  faith,  whereby  she 
endures  as  seeing  Him  Who  is  invisible  [Heb.  xi.  27). 
The  world  beholdeth  Him  not,  but  we  behold  Him  ; 
for  the  world  neither  sees  nor  knows,  and  so  cannot  re- 


I 


rv.]      Detailed  Examination  of  the   Thcophanies.     189 

ceive,  the  Sjnrit  of  Truth  ;  but  we  hioiv  Him,  because 
He  divelleth  ivith  us,  and  is  in  us  [St.  John  xiv.  17).  If 
the  Lord,  as  to  an  ordinary  bodily  Presence,  went  away 
from  us,  it  was  because  it  was  expedient  for  us;  for  such 
Presence  must  be  local,  limited,  outward,  and  He  would 
be  with  us,  and  within  us,  each  and  all.  If  for  a  little 
while  His  Church  saw  Him  not,  again,  after  a  little 
ichile,  from  the  Kesurrection,  and  still  more  from  Pente- 
cost, onwards,  she  has  seen  Him  again,  because  He  is 
gone  to  the  Father  (St.  John  xvi.  16).  He  has  fulfilled 
His  promise,  I  ivill  see  you  again,  and  our  heart  rejoices 
with  a  joy  that  none  can  take  from  us  ;  (ver.  22)  for  on 
us  rests  His  special  benediction.  Blessed,  are  they  that 
have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  helieved  (St.  John  xx.  29). 

93.  Proceeding  to  examine  the  incidents  themselves 
of  this  nature,  as  recorded  in  the  Bible,  we  find  the 
first  explicit  assertion  of  an  ajjpearance  of  the  Lord 
to  man  in  Genesis  xii.  7.  After  His  frustration  of  the 
first  rival  attempt  at  a  world-supremacy  in  the  case  of 
Babel,  the  Son  of  God  lays  the  first  foundations  of  His 
own  special  kingdom,  in  the  world  but  not  of  it,  in  His 
summons  to  Abram  to  get  him  out  of  his  country,  and 
from  his  kindred,  and  from  his  father's  house,  and  His 
promise  to  make  him  a  blessing  in  whom  should  all 
families  of  the  earth  he  hlessed.  Then,  on  Abram's 
first  arrival  in  Canaan,  The  Lord  again  ajipeared  unto 
Ahram,  and  said.  Unto  thy  seed  tvill  I  give  this  land. 
There  Abram  huilded  an  altar  unto  the  Loed  icho 
apjpeared  unto  him ;  thus  beginning  a  practice  which 
he  ever  afterwards  adhered  to,  and  which  the  Kingdom 
of  God  has  observed  ever  since,  of  setting  apart  a  defi- 


IQO      Appearances  of  God  the  Son  to  Abram ;     [lect. 

nite  spot  of  earth,  in  the  name  of  the  whole,  which  is 
really  God's,  as  sacred  to  the  worship  of  the  Almighty ; 
a  visible  witness,  amid  the  usurpations  of  evil  which 
have  ever  surrounded  it,  to  God's  claims  and  man's 
duty,  and  a  centre  of  union  to  God's  people,  who,  at 
His  altar,  call  u]jon  His  Name. 

More  remarkably  we  trace  the  Mediation  of  the  Son 
of  God  in  the  mysterious  and  peculiarly  solemn  trans- 
action recorded  in  the  Sixteenth  Chapter  of  Genesis. 
Here  it  is  no  Targum,  but  the  original  Sacred  Text 
itself,  which  twice  says  that  The  Word  of  the  Loed  (an 
expression  here  used  for  the  first  time)  came  unto  Abram 
in  vision,  and  made  an  express  covenant  ivith  him  hy 
sacrifce  (see  Psalm  1.  5).  This  is  also  the  first  occasion 
on  which  we  find  the  title  Adonai,  which  (see  Psalm 
ex.  i)  belongs  in  an  especial  manner  to  the  Son, 
addressed  to  God  in  conjunction  with  His  Name 
Jehovah  {Aj^j^endix.  Note  9).  The  language  of  the 
passage  seems  to  imply  that  the  mode  of  the  mani- 
festation, which  was  by  night,  was  other  than  the 
usual  one  ;  especially  in  that,  in  the  solemn  passing  of 
the  covenanting  parties  between  the  divided  portions 
of  the  animals  slain  in  sacrifice  (a  custom  alluded  to 
in  Jeremiah  xxxiv.  18,  19),  the  Lord  was  represented, 
not  by  any  human  or  angelic  form,  but  by  a  smoking 
furnace  and  a  lam/p  of  fre  that  'passed  hetioeen  those 
j^ieces.  This  symbol  of  the  Divine  Presence  seems  to 
be  anticipated  in  the  mention  of  the  flaming  sivord 
placed  with  the  Cherid)im  at  the  east  of  the  garden  of 
Eden  to  heep  the  way  of  ihe  tree  of  life;  and  also  to 
foreshadow  the  like  symbol  in  the  Burning  Bush,  and 


IV.]      to  Ilagar,  as  '  The  Angel  of  the  Lord' ;     191 

in  ilie  Pillar  of  Fire,  and  in  the  Sheldnali.  It  may  be 
due  to  this  feature  of  the  revelation,  and  to  the  absence 
of  any  visible  form,  that  especial  mention  is  made  of 
The  Word  of  the  Loiw  coming  to  Abram  ;  as  though  its 
first  intimation  was  merely  by  a  voice. 

94.  The  Sixteenth  Chapter  of  Genesis  introduces  to 
us  One  Who,  there,  and  in  many  other  places  of  the 
Bible,  is  preeminently  entitled  The  Angel  of  the  Lord. 
The  unique  grandeur  of  this  Personage  is  distinctly 
marked  in  every  instance  in  the  Sacred  Text,  if  not 
always  in  the  Authorized  Version.  Dr.  Pusey,  speaking 
on  this  point  {Daniel,  p.  515),  says,  '  Whether  it  were 
God  the  Son  Who  so  manifested  Himself  beforehand — 
as  was  (he  adds  in  a  note)  the  common  belief  of  the 
earliest  fathers — His  Godhead  invisible,  as  in  the  days 
of  His  flesh,  or  no,  yet  there  was  one  known  as  The 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  distinct  from  and  above  all  the 
rest.'  He  stands,  everywhere,  alone  and  unapproach- 
able. There  is  but  one  so  called ;  just  as  there  is  also 
but  one  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  who  is  called  the  Devil, 
the  Satan,  the  Adversary.  Further — (if  one  may  say  so 
jMce  tanii  viri,  who  prefers,  as  'more  probable'  the  hypo- 
thesis of  a  created  angel,  who  was,  he  thinks  (Daniel, 
p.  520)  the  Archangel  Michael) — In  every  place  where 
The  Angel  of  the  Loud  is  introduced  His  divine  cha- 
racter and  dignity  are  also  most  clearly  intimated. 
Who  can  this  be  but  the  Son  of  God,  the  AVord  of  the 
Father  ? 

Nothing  can  be  more  touchingly  beautiful,  more 
approprijite  in  its  tenderness  and  pity,  more  absolutely 
worthy  of  Him  Who,  as  llie  Son  of  Man,  came  to  seek 


192  to  Abraham,  at  Mojdah;  to  Jacob,  at  Luz ;  [lect. 

and  to  save  that  ivhich  ivas  lost,  than  His  first  appearance 
under  this  express  title  and  character  of  The  Angel  of 
the  Lord.  ^iXdvOpcoTro^  yap  6  Kvpiog  (as  says  St.  Cyril  of 
Jerusalem,  speaking  of  the  Appearances  of  Christ  under 

the    Old    Testament)    ae\    av/miTepiCJyepoiuLei'Oi  rats    ^jjULeTepaig 

aaOevelaig.  (Benignus  est  enim  Dominus,  semper  ad  no- 
stras infirmitates  sese  indulgenter  demittens,  'For  the 
Lord  is  loving  to  man,  ever  graciously  condescending 
to  our  infirmities  \')  Thus  He  came  first  on  an  errand 
of  consolation  and  of  promise  to  the  helpless  Hagar,  an 
outcast  in  the  wilderness,  first  alone  (Gen.  xvi.  6-14), 
and  then  with  Ishmael  her  child  {Gen.  xxi.  9-20) ;  and 
the  impression  left  on  the  mind  of  Hagar  is  clearly 
indicated  in  the  correct  rendering  of  Genesis  xvi.  13  : 
She  called  the  name  of  Jehovah  ]¥lio  sjoaJce  unto  her, 
Thou  God  seest  me ;  for  she  said,  Have  I  also  here  seen 
[i.  e.  lived^  after  seeing  God "?  Wlierefore  the  well  teas 
called  Beer-lahai-roi  [i.e.  The  well  of  the  living  that  saw 
God]. 

95.  Similarly,  with  like  tender  care  for  His  own  in 
their  necessity  (see  Gen.  xxxv.  3),  and  as  reassuring 
visible  specimens,  recorded  for  their  perpetual  encou- 
ragement, of  that  ordinarily  invisible  but  minute  and 
*  never-failing  Providence  '  whereby  even  the  very  hairs 
of  their  heads  are  all  numbered,  the  gracious  Angel  of 
the  Lord  appeared  to  Abraham  {Ge7i.  xxii.  10)  when 
he  stretched  forth  his  hand,  and  took  the  hnife  to  slay  his 
son;  to  Jacob  as  he  lay  asleep  on  the  stones  at  Luz 
(Bethel)  on  the  first  night  of  his  long  exile  (xxviii.  10), 
and  again,  twenty  years  later,  to  announce  its  close 
^  Catechesis  X.  cap.  vi. 


IV.]  hi  Haran,  at  Makaiiaim,  at  Bdhcl.  193 

(xxxi.  11).  In  this  last  instance  He  Who  is  introduced 
as  The  Angel  of  God  says,  /  am  the  God  of  Bethel,  ivhere 
thou  anointedst  the  lyillar,  and  ivhere  thou  vowedst  a  voiv 
unto  me,  thus  identifying  Himself  with  the  Lord  (the  God 
Almighty  of  Gen.  xlviii.  3)  Who  stood  above  the  ladder 
which  bound  heaven  and  earth  together,  the  ladder  on 
which  the  angels  of  God,  His  ministering  servants  to 
Man,  were  ascending  and  descending,  and  which  the 
same  Divine  Saviour,  speaking  with  human  hps  to  the 
guileless  Israelite,  identified  with  His  own  incarnate 
Self  (>S^^.  John  i.  51).  It  is  observable  here  that  in  the 
account  of  the  first  appearance  to  Jacob  the  title  The 
Angel  of  the  Lord  is  not  given  to  Him  Who  speaks ; 
naturally  enough,  because  the  visible  presence  of  the 
created  and  ministering  angels  is  a  marked  feature  of 
the  incident.  Yet,  since  on  the  next  occasion  {Gen. 
xxxi.  11)  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  expressly  says,  I  am 
the  God  of  Bethel,  we  may  infer  that  on  other  similar 
occasions  also,  as  the  mysterious  wrestling  (xxxii.  24) 
and  the  fhial  Appearance  at  Bethel  (xxxv.  9),  it  was 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  Who  was  seen,  even  when  He  is 
not  expressly  introduced  by  that  title.  The  total  im- 
pression that  remained  on  the  mind  of  the  patriarch,  on 
his  reviewing,  at  its  close,  his  long  eventful  life,  is 
phiinly  indicated  in  the  form  of  his  blessing  on  Josepli 
and  his  sons  (xlviii.  15) ; — God,  hefore  ivhom  my  fathers 
Abraham  and  Isaac  did  ivalk,  the  God  which  fed  me  all 
my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the  Angel  tvhich  redeemed  me 
from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads.  He  had  not  the  clear  con- 
ce})tion  of  the  relation  of  the  Blessed  Persons  in  the 
One  Godhead  which  Christian  faith  gives  to  us ;  yet 

o 


194        Reference  in  Hosea  xii.  to  'the  ArigeF.     [lect. 

he  identifies  Tlie  Angel  ivhich  redeemed  him  with  The 
God  of  his  fathers,  and  he  uses  the  word  hless  in  the 
singular  number  {Ajpjpendix,  Note  g).  This  view  is  deci- 
sively confirmed  by  the  language  of  the  Prophet  Hosea 
(xii.  3),  who  describes  the  wresthng  of  Jacob  with  the 
Man  Who  rebuked  the  enquiry  after  His  Name,  and  of 
Whom  the  patriarch  said,  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face, 
and  my  life  is  preserved,  in  the  following  words  : — 

B^  his  strength  he  [Jacob]  had  poioer  with   God: 
Yea,  he  had  power  over  the  Angel,  and  prevailed: 
He  wept,  and  made  supplication  unto  Him : 
At  Bethel,  He  found  him, 
And  there  He  spake  with  us ; 
Even  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Hosts ; 
Jehovah  is  His  memorial. 

'  This  "  angel  "  we  feel  authorized  in  identifying-  with 
"the  angel  of  the  covenant"  {31nl.  iii.  i),  in  whom  was 
God's  "  Name  "  (Exod.  xxiii.  21).  In  the  original  account 
in  Gene-sis  xxxii.  there  is  no  mention  of  an  "  angel "  ;  the 
mysterious  Wrestler  is  described  in  v.  24  as  "  a  man,"  but 
afterwords  in  v.  30  is  identified  by  Jacob  with  "  God."  ' 
(Prebendary  Huxtable,  in  Speaker  s  Comm.  ad  loc.) 

The  reference  of  '  he  wept '  to  the  angel  (as  making 
supplication  to  Jacob  to  let  him  go),  which  Mr.  Hux- 
table (ibid.)  mentions  as  'adopted  by  Saadia,  Rashi, 
Aben  Ezra,  Kimchi,  and  Hitzig,'  arises  probably  from 
the  view  that  the  mysterious  visitor  was  only  a  created 
angel. 

Dr.  Pusey  writes  {ad  loc,  in  3Iinor  Prophets)  '  He  then 
Who  appeared  to  Jacob,  and  Who,  in  Jacob,  spoke  to  all  the 
posterity  of  Jacob,  was  God ;  whether  it  was  (as  almost 
all  the  early  fathers  thought)  God  the  Son,  Who  thus 
appeared  in  human  form  to  the  Patriarchs,  Moses, 
Joshua,  and  in  the  time  of  the  Judges,  under  the  name  of 


IV.]        Visil  of  the  tJwce  Angels  to  Abraham.        195 

the  Angel  of  llie  Lord,  or  whether  it  was  the  Father.  God 
Almighty  thus  accustomed  man  to  see  the  form  of  Man, 
and  to  know  and  believe  that  it  was  God.' 

96.  In  contrast  with  these  wholly  gracious  manifest- 
ations stands  the  visit  of  the  three  angels  to  Abraham 
]ireparatory  to  the  Doom  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  [Gen. 
xviii,  xix)  ;  a  visit  full  of  mercy  to  him  and  to  Lot,  but 
closing  with  a  most  solemn  disclosure  of  the  judicial 
character  of  the  One  Mediator.  Here  we  must  first 
observe  that  tlie  opening  statement,  And  the  Loud 
appeared  unto  him  hy  the  oaks  of  Mamre,  is  an  intro- 
ductor}'-  heading  to  the  whole  narrative,  summing  up 
the  meaning  and  general  result  of  the  whole,  and 
defining  its  character.  Describing  the  manner  of  the 
Appearance,  the  narrative  proceeds  to  say,  Three  men 
stood  hy  him.  He  does  not  see  them  coming ;  he  lift  up 
his  eyes  and  looked,  and,  lo,  they  are  there.  He  ad- 
dresses them  as  one  \  0  Lord  (Adonay,  not  My  Lord), 
if  now  I  have  found  favour  in  Thy  sight.  In  the  pro- 
mise of  the  Heir,  One  speaks,  He  said,  I  loill  certainly 
return  unto  thee,  and  Sarah  thy  wife  shall  have  a  son. 
Henceforward  to  the  close  Abraham's  interlocutor  is  each 
time  called  The  Loiw  [Jehovah) ;  both  before  the  men 
(that  is,  the  other  two  of  the  three  visitants)  went  away 
towards  Sodom,  and  afterwards,  during  the  communi- 
cation of  the  purpose  of  judgment  and  the  ensuing 
intercession  of  Abraham.  The  exact  progress  of  the 
incident  appears  to  be  this  : — After  the  hospitable 
entertainment  under  the  oak,  and  the  promise  of  the 

'  So  the  present  Text,  Lxx.,  and  Vulg. ;  but  St.  Atig.  de  Trin.  ii.  10, 
Siiys,  '  per  pluralcm  numcrum  invitat,  ut  hoppitio  suscipiat.' 

O  2 


196      Abraham  s  Intercession  before  the  Lord.  [lect. 

Heir,  tlie  men  (i.  e.  the  three)  rose  iq)  from  thence  and 
looked  towards  Sodom,  and  Ahraham.  ivent  ivith  them  to 
bring  them  on  the  way.  The  way  led  by  Abraham's 
customary  place  of  worship,  the  ^lace  ivhere  he  stood 
hefore  the  Lord  (xviii.  22  ;  xix.  27),  which  commanded 
a  view  of  the  land  of  the  ^lain  (xix.  28).  At  tliis  sacred 
spot  The  Lord  said,  Shall  I  hide  from  Ahraham  that 
thing  which  I  do?  After  the  communication  of  the 
coming  judgment  the  men  (i.e.  the  two  created  angels) 
turned  their  faces  from  thence,  and  ivent  toward  Sodom ; 
hut  Ahraham  stood  yet  hefore  the  Lord  ;  or,  if  we  adopt 
the  remarkable  variation  restino;  on  Jewish  tradition 
and  accepted  by  Bleek  and  Geiger  (see  Cheyne  and 
Driver)  \  The  Lord  stood  yet  hefore  Ahraham.  Then 
Abraham  di^ew  near,  and  made  his  intercession,  four 
times  addressing  Him  Whom  he  acknowledges  as  The 
Judge  of  all  the  earth,  as  the  Lord  (Adonay).  At  the 
close  the  Lord  ivent  His  way,  as  soon  as  he  had  left 
communing  with  Ahraham:  and  Ahraham  returned  unto 
his  place;  and  the  two  angels  (xix.  i  should  have  the 
article  before  tivo  angels,  as  Lxx.  ol  Svo  ayyekoi)  came  on 
even  to  'Sodom,  where  Lot  was  sitting  in  the  gate.  In 
the  remainder  of  the  narrative,  especially  when  care- 
fully compared  with  the  earlier  portion  in  ch.  xviii, 
it  is  abundantly  clear  that  these  two  were  created 
angels  in  human  form.  They  describe  themselves  as 
sent  by  the  Lord  to  destroy  the  place.  They  are 
treated  by  Lot  as  men  up  to  that  moment.  It  is  only 
when,   on   the  morrow,  they  insist  on  his  immediate 

^  Bible  with  various  Renderings  and  Readings.     (Eyre  and  Spot- 
tiswoode,  1876.) 


IV.]      The  yiidgincnt  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.      197 

escape,  that  his  language  seems  to  acknowledge  in 
them  a  supernatural  character.  Then  there  is  (if  we 
adopt  the  received  pointing  of  the  Hebrew  Text)  a 
cliange  to  a  more  marked  petition  to  one,  in  the  sin- 
gular, Lot  said  unto  them,  0  not  so,  Lord  {Adonay)  ^, 
&c.,  recognising  a  messenger  and  an  instrument  of  the 
Lord,  but  otherwise,  in  the  character  of  his  entreaty 
generally,  indicating  no  consciousness  of  being  in  the 
immediate  Presence  of  the  Lord  Himself.  That  the 
unseen  Judge  should  use  the  ministry  of  His  creature- 
angels  in  the  actual  immediate  execution  of  j^unish- 
ment,  especially  of  the  reprobate  as  distinct  from  the 
chastisement  of  the  elect,  while  He  Himself  personally 
talked  with  Abraham,  Tlie  friend  of  God,  harmonizes 
with  other  examples  in  Holy  Scripture  ^.  Yet  the  true 
ultimate  agency  is  clearly  enunciated  in  the  significant 
declaration  of  xix.  24,  Then  the  Lord  rained  ujion 
Sodom  and  upon  Gomorrah  hrimstone  and  fire  from  the 
Lord  out  of  heaven. 

97.  Passing  to  the  Book  of  Exodus  (chap,  iii)  we 
meet  the  same  Divine  Personage  operating  on  a 
grander  scale  for  the  redemption  of  His  PeojDle  and 
the  discomfiture  of  their  enemies.     He  Who  spake  to 

*  The  Masoi-ites  note  this  (as  in  xviii.  3)  as  'lioly,'  i.  e.  addressed  to 
God,  reading  it  with  Kamets  {Adonay),  not  Pattahk  {Adonai,  mtj 
lords,  as  xix.  2),  but  it  is  uncertain,  perhaps.  Gesenius,  Lexicon,  }nx, 
takes  it  on  one  page  as  Adonai,  plural,  on  the  next  as  Adonay, 
singular. 

■•*  For  example,  in  Rev.  xiv.  14-20,  while  the  hai-vest  of  the  earth  is 
reaped  by  the  golden-crowned  One,  like  unto  a  Son  of  Man,  Who  sat 
upon  the  while  cloud,  the  gathering  of  tlie  vine  oftJie  earth,  to  cast  it  into 
tJt£  great  wine-jyress  of  tlie  lorath  of  God  is  the  woi'k  of  a  created  angel. 


198  The  Appem^ance  to  Moses  in  Horeb      [lect. 

Moses  in  the  wilderness  of  Horeb  from  the  flame  of 
fire  in  the  bush,  and  said,  Draw  not  nigh  hither :  j^ut  off 
thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for  the  ]flace  ivhereon  thou 
standest  is  holy  ground ;  He  Who  said  I  am  the  God  of 
Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  and 
before  Whom  Moses  hid  his  face,  for  he  loas  afraid  to 
look  u^on  God,  was  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  and  yet  the 
Lord  God  of  the  Hebrews  {v.  t8),  the  I  am  that  I  am^. 
There  is  an  absolutely  unanimous  consent  of  the  Fathers 
that  the  special  Divine  Personahty  here  manifested, 
though  not,  of  course,  without  the  concurrent  Presence 
and  Co-operation  of  the  Father  and  the  Spirit  also,  was 
that  of  the  Eternal  Son.  And  if  so  here,  then,  surely, 
on  the  similar  occasions  also,  both  before  and  in  the 

^  The  Church  seems  to  sanction  the  thought  that  the  Angel  Who 
appeared  in  the  Bush  was  Christ,  by  her  conjunction,  on  the  Fifth 
Sunday  in  Lent,  of  Exodus  iii.  as  the  First  Lesson  at  Matins  with  St. 
John  iii.  58,  in  the  Epistle. 

The  appointment  of  Genesis  xviii.  as  an  Evening  Lesson  on  Trinity 
Sunday  was  probably  due  to  St.  Augustine's  language  in  the  De 
Trinitate,  ix.  11.  20,  etc.,  where  he  labours  to  show  that  the  three  '  men ' 
or  '  angels '  may  have  rej^resented  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Blessed 
Trinity,  the  two  who  went  on  to  Sodom  representing,  more  especially, 
tlie  Second  and  Third  Persons,  because  they  say  they  wei'e  'sent,' 
(though  he  admits  (cap.  13.  23)  that  he  cannot  recollect  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  anywhere  called  an  'angel');  while  the  specialty  of 
addi'ess  to  one  in  the  singular,  so  marked  in  Abraham's  language,  and 
also,  though  much  less  so,  in  Lot's,  he  takes  to  indicate  only  Their 
Unity  and  Identity  of  Substance.  But  his  comment  exhibits  plainly 
the  difficulties  inseparable  from  his  peculiar  view ;  and  only  sets  in 
a  clearer  light  the  simplicity  and  consistency  of  the  primitive  Catholic 
view,  that  the  Lord  Who  '  appeared  '  was  ever  the  Son  of  God.  But, 
of  course,  this  chapter,  like  all  the  narratives  of  the  Theophanies,  has  a 
weighty  force  in  the  establishment  of  a  plural  Personality  in  the  Grod- 
head ;  and  that  is  the  first  necessary  stej)  towards  the  full  faith  in  the 
Holy  Trinity. 


IV.]  in  the  Burning  Bnsh.  199 

after  history.  In  fact  this  signal  manifestation  throws 
a  flood  of  light  on  both  the  earlier  and  later  examples 
of  the  kind  we  are  discussing  ;  and  if  we  are  compelled 
to  admit  that  there  is  here  an  especial  action  and  mani- 
fested Presence  of  the  Looses  tliere  can  be  no  valid 
reason  against  admitting  the  same  Presence  in  other 
instances  also  which  are  reallv,  in  essentials,  analoo-ous. 
It  is  natural,  after  this,  to  suppose  that  the  Lord  Who 
in  the  subsequent  history,  up  to  and  after  the  Exodus, 
spake  to  Moses,  was  the  Eternal  Son. 

Thus  Dr.  Mill  writes  {^lythical  Interp.  of  the  Gospels, 
Appendix  E,  p.  153),  'That  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  who 
preceded  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egypt  in  the  cloud  and 
in  the  fire,  was  (agreeably  to  Exod.  xiii.  20.  21,  compared 
with  xiv.  19,  20;  Kiim.  xx.  6,  &c.),  the  Lord  Himself, 
possessor  of  the  incommunicable  name  nilT^,  and  that 
this  Angel  of  the  Covenant  (as  he  is  termed  in  Mai.  iii.  i, 
compared  with  Gen.  xlviii.  15,  16,  &c.)  is  the  Uncreated 
Word,  who  appeared  in  visible  form  to  Jacob  and  Moses, 
and  who  was  in  the  fulness  of  time  incarnate  in  the  person 
of  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  known  undoubted  faith  of  the 
Church  of  God,  and  needs  not  to  be  enlarged  on  here. 
This  same  Uncreated  Angel,  in  whom  was  the  name  of  the 
Loud,  is  promised  by  the  mouth  of  Moses,  in  Exod.  xxiii. 
20-23,  to  continue  to  precede  the  armies  of  Israel,  and  cut 
oil' the  Canaanites  before  them.'  But,  following  Theodoret, 
and  also  the  Rabbis  Tanchuma  and  jNIoses  Ben  Nachman, 
he  proceeds  to  express  a  view  (to  be  presently  noticed) 
that  the  sin  of  the  golden  calf  led  to  a  permanent  with- 
drawal of  the  Divine  Presence  and  substitution  of  a 
created  ang'cl,  and  that  i/ie  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host, 
who  appeared  to  Joshua  before  Jericho,  was  the  Arch- 
angel Michael. 

98.  The  next  special   mention  of  The  Angel  of  the 


200        The  Divine  Angel-Guardian  of  Israel,   [lect. 

Ijo-rj)  after  the  Burning  Busli  (Exod.  xiv.  19)  identifies 
Him  with  the  Lord  Who  (xiii.  21)  went  hefore  them  hy 
day  in  a  pillar  of  a  cloud  to  lead  them  the  way,  and  hy 
night  in  a  'pillar  of  fire  to  give  them  light;  and  who 
(xiv.  24)  looked  unto  the  host  of  the  Egyjjtians  through 
the  pillar  of  fire  and  of  the  cloud,  and  troubled  the  host 
of  the  Egyj^tians,  even  as  once  again  He  troubled  those 
who,  when  He  said  unto  them,  I  am,  ivent  hachivard  and 
fell  to  the  ground  {St.  John  xviii.  6). 

99.  Next  we  find  a  remarkable  passage  which,  on  a 
superficial  view,  has  been  thought  to  show  an  express 
substitution  of  a  created  angel  in  the  place  of  the  Son 
of  God  as  the  Guardian  of  the  Host  of  Israel,  and  so  to 
authorize  the  weaker  interpretation  of  the  phrase  The 
Angel  of  the  Loed  in  earlier  and  later  passages.  The 
real  force  of  the  passage  is  the  exact  opposite  of  this. 
It  runs  as  follows  {Exod.  xxiii.  20) :  Behold  I  send  an 
Angel  hefore  thee,  to  keep  thee  in  the  ivay,  and  to  bring 
thee  into  the  flace  which  I  have  jirejjared.  Beivare  of 
him,  and  obey  his  voice,  provohe  him  not;  for  he  ivill  not 
]pardon  your  transgressions:  for  my  naiyie  is  in  him. 
But  if  thou  shall  indeed  obey  his  voice,  and  do  all  that  I 
speah  ;  then  I  will  he  an  enemy  unto  thine  enemies,  and 
an  adversary  unto  thine  adversaries.  For  mine  Angel 
shall  go  hefore  thee,  and  bring  thee  in  unto  the  Amorites, 
&c.  .  .  .  and  I  ivill  cut  them  off.  These  words  of  promise 
occur  at  the  close  of  a  continuous  section  of  three  chap- 
ters (xxi,  xxii,  xxiii),  in  which  Moses  communicates  to 
the  people  the  Revelation  made  to  him  in  the  Mount, 
where  he  was,  in  an  especial  and  peculiar  manner,  in 
the  immediate   presence  of  God.     The  language  used 


IV.]     withdrawn  after  the  Worship  of  the  Calf,     201 

points,  especially  when  regarded  in  the  light  of  that 
used  in  the  narrative  of  the  manifestation  at  the  Burn- 
ing Bush,  to  a  Divine  Angel,  and  so  to  the  Son  of  God  ; 
for  it  says,  My  name  is  in  Mm.  This  could  be  said  of 
no  created  angel.     And  so  far  Dr.  Mill  would  agree. 

The  sin  of  the  golden  calf  (xxxii.)  threatened  a  differ- 
ence. The  act  of  idolatry  broke  the  covenant;  and 
then  (xxxiii.)  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses  ...  7  will  send 
an  angel  before  thee;  .  .  .  for  I  will  not  go  up  in  the 
midst  of  thee ;  for  thou  art  a  stiff-necked  people  ;  lest  I 
consume  thee  in  the  way.  The  breach  that  was  made 
between  God  and  the  People  by  this  sin  is  indicated  by 
Moses'  removal  of  the  Tent  of  Meeting  to  the  outside  of 
the  camp,  afar  off  from  the  camp  [v.  7),  and  by  the 
absence  of  the  Cloudy  Pilla.r  from  above  it,  until  Moses, 
who,  witli  Joshua,  had  not  participated  in  the  idolatrous 
worship,  entered  into  the  Tent,  when  it  came  to  pass, 
that  the  Cloudy  Pillar  descended,  and  stood  at  tJie  door 
of  the  Tent,  and  He  talked  ivith  Moses.  But,  in  esti- 
mating the  consequences  of  this  transgression,  we  must 
take  account  of  the  Repentance  of  the  People,  and  of 
the  Intercession  of  Moses.  ]Mien  the  people  heard  these 
evil  tidings,  they  mourned:  and  no  man  did  fut  on  him 
his  ornaments  (v.  4),  and  The  children  of  Israel  stripped 
themselves  of  their  ornaments  hy  the  mount  Horeb  [v.  6), 
and  When  Moses  ivent  out  unto  the  Tent,  all  the  people 
rose  up  and  stood  every  rnan  at  his  tent  door,  and  looked 
after  Moses,  until  he  ivas  gone  into  the  Tent  .  .  .  and  all 
the  peoyle  saio  the  Cloudy  Fillar  stand  at  the  door  of  the 
Tent ;  and  all  the  people  rose  up  and  tvorshipped,  every 
man  in  his  tent  door.     And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses 


202  restored  after  Moses    Intercession.         [liECT. 

face  to  face.,  as  a  man  speaketh  unto  his  friend  (vv.  8-10). 
Then  followed  Moses'  Intercession,  and  the  gracious 
answer  of  God  to  him  (vv.  12-17).  Moses  said  unto  the 
Lord,  See  thou  say  est  unto  me,  Bring  iq)  this  jpeople  : 
and  thou  hast  not  let  me  hnow  whom  thou  wilt  send  ivith 
me  .  .  .  And  he  said,  My  Presence  \^IB,  My  Face, 
cf.  Isa,  Ixiii.  9]  shall  go  ivith  thee  [Lxx.  aiVo?  irpoTropev- 
arofiai  crov]  and  I  will  give  thee  rest.  And  he  said  unto 
him,  If  thy  presence  [^"'^?,  TJiy  Face^  go  not  ivith 
me  [Lxx.  Et  /nrj  aiiro?  a-u  a-vjuiTropevri'j,  carry  us  not  uj) 
hence.  For,  &c.  .  .  .  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  I 
will  do  this  thing  also  that  thou  hast  spoken.  Further, 
in  the  next  chapter,  when  Moses  went  up  the  second 
time  unto  Mount  Sinai,  with  the  second  tables  of  stone, 
and  the  Lord  descended  in  the  Cloud,  and  stood  with  him 
there  [vv.  4,  5),  again  Moses  interceded  and  received  a 
gracious  answer  (9,  10),  Ifnoiv  I  have  found  grace  in  thy 
sight,  0  Lord  (Adonay),  let  my  Lord  {Adonay),  Ijjray  thee, 
go  among  us:  for  it  is  a  stiff  necked  people;  and  pardon  our 
iniquity  and  our  sin,  and  take  us  for  thine  inheritance. 
And  He  said,  Behold,  I  make  a  covenant,  &c.  Thus  the 
covenant-relation  was  renewed ;  and,  with  it,  the  guar- 
diansliip  of  the  Angel  in  Whom  was  the  incommunicable 
Name ;  and  its  outward  token,  the  Cloudy  Pillar,  was 
restored  to  its  customary  position  above  the  Tabernacle. 
Conformably  with  this  view  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  when, 
long  afterwards,  he  set  himself  to  mention  the  loving 
kindnesses  of  the  Lord,  and  the  praises  of  the  Lord, 
according  to  all  that  the  Lord  had  hestoived  on  them., 
and  His  great  goodness  towards  the  house  of  Israel,  says 
(Ixiii.  7)  :— 


IV.]  Appearance  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  to  Balaam  203 

So  He  was  their  Sacioiir. 

In  all  their  aJJUetioyt,  He  tvas  afflicted, 

And  the  Angel  of  His  Face  saved  them  : 

In  His  love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them ; 

And  He  hare  them,  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old. 

Where   the    Septiiagint   Version,   very    remarkably, 
runs  as  follows : — 

Kat   lytvijo  avToHs   ets   rrcaTi-jpiav  (k.   7!a(n]s   (?At\//-ea;9  avTutu. 
ov   7rpi(TJ3v<i,  ovhk  ayyeXog,   uAA'   avTos  eVwfrei'  avToij<i, 
bia  TO  ayairav  avTovs   kuI  (petbeaOai  avTcHv' 
avTOS   ikvrpoiaaTo   avrovs,  Koi   av^ka^ev  avTovs,   k.t.\. 

100.  Before  leavmg  the  liistorj  of  the  Pentateuch  we 
notice  an  Appearance  of  The  Angel  of  the  Lord  which 
prepares  us  for  His  remarkable  Manifestation  of  Himself 
in  a  military  character,  as  the  Leader  and  Protector  of 
God's  people,  in  the  Book  of  Joshua.  It  is  that  to 
Balaam  on  his  way  to  curse  Israel  [Numbers  xxii,  xxiii, 
xxiv).  In  considering  this  very  noteworthy  passage 
it  should  be  observed,  first,  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  a 
visible  manifestation  and  approach  of  God  or  the  Lord 
for  the  purpose  of  converse  is  implied  throughout.  God 
came  unio  Balaam  (xxii.  9),  God  came  unto  Balaam  by 
night  (20)  and  said  .  .  .  the  loord  that  I  shall  say  unto 
thee  that  shalt  thou  do.  Compare  (38)  The  ivord  that 
God  futteth  in  my  mouth,  that  shall  I  sjjeak  (compare 
xxiii.  12  and  26,  and  xxiv.  13).  After  this  it  is  natural 
for  Balaam  to  say  (xxiii.  3)  peradvcnture  the  Lord  will 
come  to  meet  me  (LXX.  el  fMoi  (pavelrai  6  Beo?  er  avvai'Tt'iaei^, 
and  ivhatsoever  he  sheiveth  me  I  ivill  tell  thee.  And 
God  met  Balaam  (Lxx.  €(j)di>t]  6  Geo?  tw  B«\auV)  .  .  . 
A)id  the  Lord  put   a   u'ord   in  Balaam's   moidh.    And 


204  €vidc7itly  a  Divine  Manifestation.         [lect. 

again  (15),  Stand  here  .  .  .  ivliile  I  meet  the  Lord  yonder. 
And  the  Lord  met  Bcdaam,  and  j^id  a  toord  in  his  moidh. 
Next,  in  the  narrative  of  the  Appearance,  first  to  the 
ass  and  then  to  Balaam  himself,  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
ivith  His  sivord  drawn  in  His  hand'^,  He  is  called 
throughout  The  Angel  of  the  Lord  ^,  and  never  simply 
an  angel.  He  speaks  as  God,  TJiy  way  is  perverse  before 
me,  and  only  the  word  that  I  shall  speah  unto  thee,  that 
thou  shcdt  S2')eah  (see  xxii.  20).  Lastly,  observe  the 
effect  on  Balaam ;  he  howed  down  his  head,  and  wor- 
shipped ^  on  his  face  .  .  .  a7id  said,  I  have  sinned ;  and 
his  twice  repeated  allusion  afterwards  (xxiv.  3,  4  and 
15, 16)  to  his  blindness  at  first,  and  the  awful  disclosure 
that  followed  when  his  eyes  were  opened  : — 

A  revelation  to  Balaam  tJie  son  of  Bear, 

And  a  revelation  to  the  man  unclosed  {or,  closed*)  of  eye, 

^  Compare  tTos/ma  v.  13,  and  i  Chron.  xxi.  16. 

^  The  Vulg.,  unlike  the  Lxx.,  having  introduced  Him  as  Angelus 
Domini,  afterwards  in  every  instance  calls  him  simply  angelus.  This, 
added  to  the  absence  of  the  definite  article  in  Latin,  weakens  the  effect 
considerably. 

^  The  word  in  the  Hebrew  is  the  same  as  that  rendered  worshi2^2^ed 
of  Joshua,  in  Joshuas.  14.  Curiously,  the  Lxx.,  which  omits  it  there, 
gives  here  a  full  rendering,  Kvy\ras  TrpoaeKvvrjae  tS  Trpoa-oina  avrov. 

*  I.  e.  if  we  read  Onb'  as  Vulg.  (cuius  obturatus  est  oculus),  Eng. 
A.  V.  margin,  and  Drs.  Gotch  and  Davies  in  their  very  valuable 
Revised  English  Bible  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  1877);  also  (according 
to  Cheyne  and  Drivei''s  Bible  with  various  Renderings  and  Readings, 
(Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  1876),  Hcngstenberg,  Hupfeld,  Roedigcr,  and 
Keil.  The  other  reading  ^'^^,  unclosed,  has  in  its  favour,  according  to 
the  same  authorities,  '  ilie  Lxx.,  Targums,  Peshito,  most  Jews,  Gesenius, 
Eivald,  and  Knohel.  If  we  read  closed,  the  allusion  is  to  Balaam's 
blindness  before  he  saw  the  Angel;  as  falling,  and  having  the  eyes  opened 
alludes  to  xxii.  31,  and  his  prostration  in  worship.     The  student  will 


IV.]  Appearance  of  the  Captain  of  the  L  orhs  host   205 

A  revelation  to  him  ivho  heard  the  words  of  God, 
Who  beheld  ^  the  vision  of  the  Almighty, 
Falling,  and  having  the  eyes  opened. 

In  this  latter  passage  the  English  reader  can  only 
think  of  the  ordinary  verb  for  speaking,  in  the  tlirice 
repeated  liatli  said  of  the  Authorized  Version  ;  which 
fails  entirely  (as  also  do  the  Septuagint  and  the  Vulgate) 
to  convev  the  force  of  the  orio-iual,  and  its  inherent 
thought  of  a  very  special  and  solemn  disclosure.  The 
addition  of  ev  vttvw  {in  sleej))  by  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lators to  beheld  the  vision,  &c.,  which  probably  misled 
the  A,  v.,  into  the  unwarrantable  addition  of  into  a 
trance  di^iter  falling ,  is  possibly  merely  dishonest. 

10  r.  We  pass  to  the  Book  of  Joshua,  the  faithful 
servant  who  was  guiltless  of  the  idolatry  which  had 
temporarily  interrupted  the  covenant-relation  between 
God  and  His  People,  and  to  whom  Gods  favour  had 
ever  been  vouchsafed.  Here  we  find  a  characteristic 
and  appropriate  Appearance  of  the  great  Protector  of 
Israel  at  the  critical  period  which  followed  the  passage 
of  the  Jordan.  The  passage  (the  internal  continuity  of 
which  is,  most  unfortunately,  obscured  by  the  division 
of  the  chapters)  covers  the  close  of  the  fifth  and  opening 
of  the  sixth  chapters.  The  Appearance  is  that  of  a  Man 
ivith  his  sicord  drawn  in  his  hand,  Who  announces  Him- 
self as  the  Cai^tain,  or  Prince,  of  the  host  of  the  Loud  ; 

observe  that  the  A.  V.  has  no  right  to  insert  into  a  trance  after  '  fall- 
ing.'    Gotch  and  Davies  render  '  falling  to  the  ground.' 

^  "^tl"!  •  .  '^^n'?.  Gt'senius  says  HTH  nicans  'specially,  i.  To  see  God, 
sometimes  pp.  of  the  actual  vision  of  the  Divine  presence.  Ex.  xxiv.  1 1, 
They  \Afoses  and  the  Elders]  saw  God.  Job  xix.  26.  27,  Even  from 
[or  ivithout]  ing  Jlesh  shall  I  see  God,  whom  I  for  mgself  sludl  see.' 


2o6  to  Joshua  before  Jericho,  [lect. 

and  Who  not  only  accepts  without  rebuke  the  prostrate 
worship  of  Joshua,  but,  as  if  on  purpose  to  remind  him 
of  what  must  have  been,  in  every  detail,  deeply  im- 
printed in  his  memory  from  his  close  association  with 
Moses — the  Manifestation  at  the  Burning  Bush — bids 
him  also,  as  Moses  had  been  bidden.  Loose  thy  shoe  from 
of  thy  foot,  for  tJie  flace  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy, 
and  in  the  remainder  of  the  interview  is  expressly 
styled  the  Lobb. 

It  is  remarkable  that  any,  at  least,  of  those  who 
admit  the  Manifestation  at  the  Burning  Bush  to  have 
been  Divine,  should  hesitate  about  this,  in  the  face  of 
so  clear  indications  of  a  Divine  Presence.  Justin 
Martyr  (Dial,  cum  Tryj^hone,  cap.  62.)  so  understood 
it,  as  well  as  Eusebius  the  historian  (E.  H.  I.  ii,),  '  and 
others,  as  Theodoret  witnesses  in  his  Questions  on  the 
Book  of  Joshua^  ; '  so  also,  among  ourselves,  Archbishop 
Usher,  Bishops  Patrick  and  Watson  ;  also  Stackhouse, 
AUix,  Woodward,  Scott,  D'Oyly,  and  Mant ;  and,  in  our 
own  day.  Chancellor  Espin  in  the  Speaker's  Commen- 
tary, Prebendary  Davey  in  the  S.P.CK.  Commentary, 
and  Dr.  Walsh  (Bishop  of  Ossory)  in  The  Angel  of  the 
Lord:  so  too  Protestant  Commentators  generally 2. 

On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  Mill  lays  great  stress  on  a 
curious  scholion  on  the  place  in  Eusebius  (preserved  by 
his  editor  Valesius,  who  says  it  is  '  written  by  the  hand 
of  the  very  antiquary  who  wrote  out  the  Manuscrij^t '), 

^  Yalesius,  on  Etiseb.  I.  ii.  Among  the  '  others  '  is  Origen,  in  his 
Sixth  Homily  on  the  Book  of  Joshua,  as  preserved  in  Rufinus'  Latin 
Translation.     See  Burton,  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  §  210. 

^  See  Hengstenberg,  Christology,  vol.  i.  p.  121. 


IV.]     not  an  appem'ance  of  the  Archangel  Michael    207 

to  the  effect  that  'the  Church  thought  differently/ 
chiefly  on  the  ground  that  the  being  who  appeared 
to  Joshua  did  not  call  himself  God,  but  God's  chief 
cajatain,  a  dignity  rather  ministerial  than  supreme. 
Valesius  states  that  '  the  rest  of  the  Fathers '  thought 
he  was  *  not  the  Son  of  God,  but  rather  Michael  the 
Archangel.'  This  view  (adopted  by  Dr.  MilP,  and 
also,  as  'most  probable,'  by  Dr.  Pusey-,  but  claiming 
expressly  among  the  Fathers  the  name  of  Theodoret 
only)  is  evidently  based  on  tlie  pecuHar  phenomena  of 
the  Lxx.  Version  of  the  passage.  It  is  observable 
that  in  Joshua  v.  14,  the  ^nrivT^'l  {and  did  loorshijp; 
the  word  used  of  Balaam's  falHng  flat  on  his  face  when 
he  saw  the  Angel  of  the  Lord)  is  altogether  unrepre- 
sented in  the  Greek.  Again,  in  Joshua's  question, 
What  saitli  my  Lord  unto  his  servant  f  "^21^  is  rendered 
not  Kvpie  (Lord),  but  AeWora  (Master).  These  two 
peculiarities  considerably  lower  the  effect  of  the  original  ; 
which  is  further  weakened  by  the  severance  of  the 
fifth  verse  in  the  narrative.  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Joshua,  from  its  proper  connection  with  the  appearance 
of  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host,  To  Dr.  Mill's 
argument,  that  the  title  Ca])tain  (ap-^ia-rpdrriyos)  implies 
*  only  a  ministerial  superintendence,'  it  may  be  replied, 
that  it  does  so  not  at  all  more  than  the  title  Angel 
or  Messenger,  which  the  same  high  authority  frankly 
admits  is  elsewhere  given  to  the  Son  of  God ;  or  than 
the  title  Captain  of  our  Salvation,  which  it  is  possible 

^  Mythical  Inferp.  Gosj).  p.  353.     Appendix  E. 
^  Daniel  the  Froj)/iet.     Lecture  ix.  p.  520. 


2o8       but  of  God  the  Son  coming  in  Judgment    [lect. 

was  applied  to  our  Lord  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  from  a  recollection  of  this  incident. 
He  further  urges,  '  that  it  seems  most  natural  and 
obvious  to  conceive  that  the  Lord  sent  this  message 
to  Joshua  by  the  mouth  of  his  Archangel ; '  but  there 
is  really  no  very  evident  reason  why  it  should  be 
more  '  natural  and  obvious '  in  this  case  than  in  the 
case  of  the  Burning  Bush.  It  was,  indeed,  really  far 
more  than  a  '  message.'  It  was,  in  truth,  a  much- 
needed  assurance,  vouchsafed  in  such  outward  and 
visible  form  as  should  make  it  more  surely  decisive  and 
effectual,  that  the  same  invisible  Divine  Leader  Who 
had  brought  their  fathers  safely  through  the  wilderness 
would  be  also  with  this  younger  and  less  experienced 
generation,  in  their  terrible  task  of  reducing  the  war- 
like races  of  Canaan  and  their  strongly-fenced  cities. 
It  was  an  assurance,  too,  from  Him  Who,  after  the 
death  of  Moses,  spake  expressly  unto  Joshua  (i.  5), 
saying,  As  I  was  with  Moses,  so  will  I  he  ivith  thee  : 
I  will  not  fail  thee  nor  forsake  thee  ....  Have  not 
I  commanded  thee  ?  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage  ; 
he  not  afraid,  neither  he  thou  dismayed :  for  the  Lord 
thy  God  is  with  thee  whithersoever  thou  goest.  And  it 
was,  farther,  a  most  expressive  and  much-needed  token 
that  the  fearful  work  of  extermination  which  was  at 
that  moment  before  the  Israelites  was  indeed  a  Divine 
judicial  Visitation  on  the  Seven  Nations,  whose  iniquity 
was  now  full ;  and  that  their  execution  of  it  was  a  duty 
warranted,  as  it  could  alone  be  warranted,  by  a  most 
undoubted  special  Divine  Command.  The  drawn 
sword  in  the  hand  of  the  Son  of  God  we,  at  least,  can 


IV.]         Appear a7ices  in  the  Book  of  jftidges,  209 

now  clearly  perceive   to   indicate  Who  was  the   real, 
though  invisible,  Agent  in  that  act  of  doom. 

This  question,  however,  may  really  be  considered  as 
ruled  by  the  allusion  to  the  Conquest  of  Canaan  in 
the  inspired  Psalm  of  Habakkuk,  who  cries,  after 
grateful  thanksgiving  to  the  Lord  for  the  glories  of 
the  Exodus, 

Sun  and  moon  stand  still  in  their  habitation^ 

At  the  fash  of  Thine  arrows  which  go  swiftly^ 

At  the  shining  of  Thy  glittering  sjiear, 

In  tvrath  Thou  marchest  throxigh  the  land, 

In  anger  Thou  dost  thresh  the  Heathen, 

Thou  marchest  forth  for  the  salvation  of  Thy  People, 

For  the  salvation  of  Thine  Anointed. 

102.  In  the  Booh  of  Judges  we  find  mention  of  three 
Appearances  of  Tlie  Angel  of  the  Lord  :  First,  to  the 
People  at  Bochim,  where,  speaking  directly  as  in  the 
Person  of  God,  and  with  evident  reference  to  the  last- 
mentioned  occasion,  He  rebukes  them  for  their  re- 
missness in  not  having  fully  carried  out  their  duty  in 
the  execution  of  that  Judgment  on  the  Canaanites, 
of  which  they  were  the  appointed  instruments.  Akin 
to  this  is  the  language  of  Deborah's  song  of  triumph 
for  the  victory  of  Barak  over  Jabin  and  the  Canaanites 
of  Hazor  {Judges  v.  23),  Curse  ye  Meroz,  said  the  Angel 
of  the  Lord,  curse  ye  ever  the  inhabitants  thereof.  The 
Ayigel  of  the  Lord  may  have  made  the  communication 
of  ch.  iv.  6,  7,  to  Deborah.  The  curse  was  effectual ; 
Meroz  *  disappears  from  history.'  (Pusey,  Daniel, 
p.  518.) 

The  second  is  that  to  Gideon  {Judges  vi.  11)  during 

p 


2IO  The  Appeara7ice  to  Gideon;  [lect. 

the  oppression  of  Israel  by  the  Midianites.  The 
passage  should  bo  carefully  studied  and  closely  com- 
pared with  the  other  similar  narratives.  It  will  then 
be  felt,  in  this  as  in  the  other  examples,  that  it  is 
almost,  if  not  quite,  impossible  to  resist  the  conclusion 
that,  even  weakened  as  it  is  in  our  Authorized  Version, 
it  conveys,  and  was  intended  to  convey,  the  impression 
that  He  Who  was  seen  and  Who  spoke  was,  and  was 
understood  by  Gideon  to  be,  a  Divine  Person.  Notice 
especially  Gideon's  first  address,  0  my  Lord  i^'il'^ 
Adoni,  simply)  not  yet  recognizing  the  Divine  character 
of  the  visitant ;  then  the  remarkable  expression.  The 
Lord  looked  iijpon  liim  and  said,  where  the  readings  of 
the  Septuagint  curiously  waver  between  eirea-rpe^e 
and  i-TrejSXeyl/eu,  reminding  us  of  arpacpeh  6  KJ^io? 
ej/e/3Xe\|re  Tw  Uerpw  (the  Lord  turned  and  looked  u^on 
Peter,  St.  Luke,  xxii.  6i) ;  then  the  recognition  of  a 
Divine    Lord    ("^J'^i;^*    Adonay),     and,     upon    this,    the 

proposal     of    the     offering,    i^ola-eo    rtjv    Ova-lav    Koi    6v<t(jo 

evutiriov  aov :  then  the  fire  out  of  the  rock,  the  expres- 
sion of  awed  surprise,  Alas,  0  Lobd  God  !  for  because 
I  have  seen  the  Angel  of  the  Lobd  face  to  face ;  the 
instant  gracious  re-assurance,  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
him :  Peace  he  to  thee !  Fear  not,  thou  shalt  not  die ; 
and,  lastly,  the  abiding  memorial,  Tlien  Gideon  huilt 
an  altar  there  unto  the  Lord,  and  called  it  Jehovah- 
Shalom. 

103.  The  third  Appearance  recorded  in  the  Book  of 
Judges  is  that  in  the  fourteenth  chapter,  to  the  wife 
of  Manoah,  and  then  to  Manoah  himself,  to  announce 
the   birth    of  their  son,  Samson,  who   should  be  the 


I 


IV.]  to  Manoah  and  his  wife;  211 

deliverer  of  the  people  from  the  sore  oppression 
of  the  Philistines.  Here  again,  to  a  mind  unpre- 
possessed and  simply  looking  at  the  evident  purport 
of  the  Hebrew  narrative,  the  phenomena  are  those  of 
a  distinctly  divine  manifestation ;  that  is,  of  a  Divine 
Personality  in  a  visible  form.  The  appearance  is  that 
of  a  man  of  God,  whose  countenance  was  like  that  of 
the  Angel  of  God,  very  terrible,  distinctly  human,  but 
divinely  majestic.  On  the  second  visit  of  this.  Hie 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  Manoah  proposes  hospitable  enter- 
tainment, like  that  of  Abraham  to  the  three  angels,  not 
knowing  as  yet  that  He  was  the  Angel  of  the  Lord. 
The  Angel  declines  to  receive  it,  Though  thou  detain  me, 
I  ivill  not  eat  of  thy  bread — there  could  be  no  merely 
equal  friendly  fellowship  between  them — adding,  If 
thou  loilt  offer  a  hurnt-offering,  thou  must  offer  it  unto 
the  Lord.  This  leads  to  Manoah' s  question,  What  is 
thy  name?  The  answer  is  surely  decisive  as  to  the 
Divine  Personality  that  speaks,  Wliy  asJcest  thou  after 
my  name,  seeing  it  is  Wonderful  ?  Is  not  this  He,  Who 
to  the  Patriarch  Jacob,  when  he  asked  (Gen.  xxxii.  29), 
Tell  me,  I  j)ray  thee,  thy  na^iie,  made  answer  in  like  man- 
ner. Wherefore  is  it  that  thou  dost  ask  after  my  name  ? 
Is  not  this  He  of  whom  Isaiah  prophesied  that  His 
name  shoidd  he  called  Wonderfid,  "^^^72,  the  same 
word,  in  the  original,  as  that  used  to  Manoah  by 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  Himself?  Then,  like  Gideon, 
Manoah  offered  the  kid  and  the  meal-offering  upon  the 
rock  to  the  Lord,  and  He  (i.  e.  the  Lord,  for  tlie  words 
the  angel  are  inserted  by  the  Authorized  Version  iu 

P  2 


212  The  Angel  of  the  Pestilence,  [lect. 

Judges  xiii.  19  without  any  authority)  did  loonderously : 
where  the  word  rendered  tvonderously  is  identical  in 
root  with  His  Name  Wonderful ;  i.  e.  He  acted  in  a 
supernatural  manner,  consistently  with  His  Name ; 
For  it  came  to  j^ass,  when  the  fame  went  up  toioard 
heaven  from  off  the  altar,  that  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
ascended  in  the  fame  of  the  altar,  Manoah  and  his  wife 
looking  on,  and  they  fell  on  their  faces  to  the  ground  .... 
TJien  Manoah  knew  that  he  was  the  angel  of  the  Lobb., 
and  Manoah  said  unto  his  wife,  We  shall  surely  die 
because  we  have  seen  God,  expressing  the  natural  and 
invariable  feeling  on  the  first  realization  of  so  awful 
a  nearness  of  God.  Yet  his  wife  reassures  him  with 
her  expression  of  the  next  feeling  that  swells  up  in 
the  devout  and  believing  soul,  at  the  thought  of  the 
condescending  love  and  mercy  thus  shown,  on  these 
and  like  occasions,  by  the  One  Mediator,  the  one  and 
only  Saviour  of  the  world,  the  one  Kedeemer  of  the 
oppressed,  the  suffering,  and  the  lost; — If  the  Lord 
were  fleased  to  hill  us,  He  would  not  have  received  a 
Ijurnt-offering  and  a  meal-offering  at  our  hands,  nor 
have  showed  us  all  these  things;  neither  would  He  at 
this  time  have  made  us  hear  a  thing  like  this. 

104.  With  regard  to  the  angel  of  the  pestilence 
which  visited  Jerusalem  as  a  punishment  for  David's 
sin  in  numbering  the  people,  the  evidence  of  the 
passages  (2  Sam.  xxiv.  16,  &c.,  and  i  Chron.  xxi. 
15,  &c.)  seems  to  invite  the  belief  that  it  was  the  One, 
the  Supreme,  the  Divine  and  uncreated  Angel,  Who 
appeared.  The  account  in  2  Samuel  introduces  the 
angel  of  the  pestilence  first  as  the  angel  simply  (but 


I 


IV.]  seen  by  David  on  Moriak,  213 

Lxx.  o  ayyeXoi  too  Qeov),  but  immediately  afterwards 
speaks  of  him  as   The  Angel  of  the  Loud   (6   ayyeXo^ 
Kvplov).     The   account  in   i  Chronicles  introduces  him 
as  an  angel ;  but  afterwards  four  times  speaks  of  him 
as   The  Angel   of  the  Loud.      David's   vision   of   him, 
standing  ....  with  his  stvord  drawn  in  his  hand,  recalls 
the  Appearance  to  Joshua   before  Jericho,  this  latter 
descriptive   phrase    being,   in   both   the    Hebrew   and 
the  Septuagint,  identical   in  the  two  passages.     The 
prostration    of  David   and    the    elders   at    the   sight, 
David's   prayer    u7ito    God,   the    angel's    command   to 
David  to  set  u^  an  altar  to  the  Lord  on  the  spot,  and 
the   answer  from   heaven   by   fire,    recall    features   of 
similar  manifestations   in   earlier   days.     Further,  the 
rendering   of   2   Chron.  iii.    i   by  the    Seventy,  which 
is  followed  by  our  own  Translators  of  1 6 1 1   in  their 
text,    shows    plainly    that    they    regarded    it    as    an 
Appearance  of  the  Loiw.     In  this  they  were  probably 
influenced   by  the    important    consideration    that   the 
name    of  the    spot,    the    site   of  the    future  Temple, 
namely,  ha-Moriah  (Lxx.  'Afxcopla,  or  'Ajuopiu),  a  name 
given  only  in  this  place  and  in  the  narrative  of  the 
Sacrifice  of  Isaac  \   means  in  Hebrew  The  Vision,   or 
The  A^jpearance,  of  the  Loud.     On  the  other  hand,  the 
present  Hebrew  Text    D'y^  lll't;^   seems  rather  to  re- 
quire  the    qui    demonstratus   fuerat   (referring    to    in 
monte    Moria)     of    the    Vulgate,    and    the    marginal 
rendering  of  our  Authorized  Version. 

As   might   naturally  be    expected,  wc   find   further 
mention   of  the    Angel  of  the   Lord   in   the    critical 
'  Gen.  xxii.  2,  Hebrew  Text,  but  Lxx.  ttV  t;)i/  y?]v  t^iv  ly^rlfKr^v. 


214  Later  Appearances,  [lect. 

period  of  the  life  of  Elijah  ;  first,  on  his  flight  from 
the  threats  of  Jezebel  to  Horeb,  the  Mount  of  God 
(i  Kings  xix) ;  and  again,  to  bid  him  send  God's 
message  of  death  to  the  idolatrous  Ahaziah  (2  Kings  i). 
After  this  we  have  no  direct  record  of  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  in  the  history  of 
the  Chosen  People,  except  as  the  destroyer  of  the 
Assyrian  host,  which  threatened  Jerusalem  in  the  reign 
of  Hezekiah.     (2  Kings  xix.  35,  and  Isaiah  xxxvii.  36.) 

In  the  Book  of  Job  we  find  (xxxiii,  23)  a  passag-e  on 
which  Dr.  Pusey  writes  as  follows : — '  This  same  angel, 
I  think,  was  meant  by  Elihu,  the  Angel-interpreter,  one  of 
a  thousand,  who  sheweth  unto  man  his  righteousness,  i.  e. 
how  he  may  be  righteous  in  God's  sig-ht,  a7id  is  gracious 
unto  him,  and  saith,  redeem  him  from  going  doivn  into  the 
pit,  I  have  found  a  ransom.  For  it  is  the  office  of  no 
mere  created  Angel,  but  is  anticipative  of  Him  Who 
came,  at  once  to  redeem  and  to  justify  ;  as  S.  Gregory 
says  {<id  loc.)  "  It  is  as  though  the  Mediator  of  God  and 
men  said,  '  since  there  hath  been  no  man,  who  might 
appear  a  righteous  intercessor  for  man,  I  made  Myself 
man  to  make  propitiation  for  man '."  This^  then,  in 
itself,  involves  a  distinction  among  the  heavenly  beings, 
so  far  at  least  that,  in  the  earliest  books,  as  well  as  in 
Daniel,  we  hear  of  one  Angel  above  those  ordinarily 
spoken  of.'     {Lectures  on  Daniel,  p.  519.) 

T05.  It  is,  however,  to  be  observed,  that  while  after 
the  deliverance  from  Sennacherib  we  find  no  express 
record  of  the  appearance,  or  present  action,  on  earth  of 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  yet  in  the  later  prophets  of 
the  critical  times  of  the  Captivity  and  the  Restoration 
— in  Ezekiel,  in  Daniel,  in  Zechariah,  and  in  Malachi — 
we  find  renewed  assurances,  in  varied  forms,   of  the 


IV.]  The  Vision  of  Ezckiel.  215 

close  and  watchful  interest  and  superintending  care  of 
the  Divine  Son  of  God  over  the  Church  and  Nation 
whose  fortunes  He  had  guided,  and  whose  character 
He  had  been  forming,  by  manifold  discipline,  of  mercy 
and  of  chastisement,  from  the  first.  To  Ezekiel  and 
Daniel  He  manifests  Himself  in  vision  under  a  human 
form ;  to  Zechariah  as  Tlie  Angel  of  the  Loud  ;  while 
Malachi  speaks  of  Him  as  The  Angel  of  the  Covenant. 

The  Prophecy  of  Ezekiel  opens  with  the  magnificent 
Vision  of  the  four  living  creatures,  the  cherubim,  and 
over  tliem  the  Throne  of  God,  and  upon  the  throne  the 
Appearance  of  a  Man  above  upon  it,  and  round  about 
an  appearance  of  brightness,  as  of  the  rainbow.  The 
seer  describes  the  glorious  appearance  of  Him  Who 
sat  on  the  throne  in  terms  that  closely  correspond  with 
St.  John's  description  of  the  same  Divine  Object  in  the 
oj)ening  of  the  Apocalypse.  Tliis,  he  tells  us,  was  the 
appearance  of  the  likeness  of  the  glory  of  the  Loud; 
words  that  might  seem  to  have  suggested  to  the  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  the  language  in  which 
lie  speaks  of  the  Eternal  Son  as  the  brightness  of  the 
Fathers  glory  and  the  express  image  of  His  person. 
And  when  he  saw  it,  he,  as  St.  John,  fell  upon  his  face, 
and  heard  the  voice  of  one  that  spake.  The  Speaker, 
Who  is  later  on  spoken  of  as  the  God  of  Israel  {Ezek. 
X.  20),  and  Whose  Presence  is  indicated  and  accom- 
panied by  the  visible  Shekinah,  the  glory  of  the  God  of 
Israel,  speaks  throughout  in  the  Person  of  the  Lord 
Jehovah ;  and  declares  Himself  the  Divine  Being 
against  Whom  the  House  of  Israel  had  sinned  in  all 
their  re])ellious  history.     He  denounces  His  judgments 


2i6        Appearances  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.        [lect. 

against  them,  while  promising  mercy  and  restoration 
to  a  faithful  remnant,  and  foretelling  His  judgments 
on  the  Heathen  nations  around. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  Prophecy  (ch.  xl.)  the 
long  detailed  symbolical  description  of  the  restored 
city  and  temple  is  prefaced  by  a  renewed  reference  to 
the  same  Divine  Person,  manifested  in  human  form,  as 
Himself  communicating  the  description  to  the  prophet, 
and  bidding  him  Declare  all  that  thou  seest  to  the  house 
of  Israel  \ 

The  passages  in  Ezekiel  which  are  to  be  especially 
noted,  as  indicating  the  intervention  of  the  Son  of  God, 
as,  in  an  especial  manner,  the  God  of  Israel,  are  the 
following :  —  The  Appearance  of  a  glorious  man,  i.  26, 
28  ;  viii.  1-3  ;  xl.  3  ;  xliii.  6  ;  xlvii.  i  :  The  visible 
Shekinah  denoting  the  Divine  Presence,  i.  28 ;  iii.  23  ; 
viii.  4  ;  ix.  3  ;  x.  3,  18-20  ;  xi.  23  ;  xliii.  3  ;  xliv.  4  : 
The  Son  commanding  the  service  of  created  angels,  ix,  x : 
The  Divine  character  of  Him  who  appeared  to  the 
Prophet,  i.  28  ;  xliv.  i,  3,  6,  9,  15,  27;  xlv.  9,  15,  ]8; 
xlvi.  I,  16;  xlvii.  13,  23:  xlviii.  29. 

106.  Passing  to  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the  Apocalypse 
of  the  Old  Testament,  we  note  first  the  two  instances 
of  the  intervention  of  an  angel  sent  by  God  for  the 
protection  of  His  faithful  martyr-servants ;  First  (ch. 
iii),  of  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah  from  the  burning 
fiery  furnace;  and.  Second  (ch.  vi),  of  the  prophet  him- 
self from  the  den  of  lions.  In  each  case  it  is  said,  in 
the  first  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  the  second  by  Daniel, 
that  God  sent  his  angel.     In  the  first  the  visible  human 

'  Compare  the  '  great  vision '  of  the  closing  chapters  (x,  xi,  xii)  of 
Daniel. 


TV.]        The   Vision  of  ^  The  Ancient  of  Days',         217 

form,  but  glorious  lilie  a  son  of  the  gods  (iii,  25),  is 
expressly  said  to  have  been  manifested  to  the  heathen 
king.  Neither  passage  speaks  certainly  of  any  divine 
personality  in  the  angel.  This  is  as  we  should  have 
expected,  from  his  being  spoken  of  in  the  first  instance 
by,  in  the  second  to,  a  heathen.  Nebuchadnezzar  and 
Darius  might  well  believe  (see  notes  ad  loc.  in  the 
Sjjeakers  Commentary)  in  this  intervention  of  super- 
natural '  messengers '  of  God  ;  but  from  them  the  full 
possible  truth  in  its  highest  form  must  necessarily  be 
veiled.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  certainly  nothing 
to  hinder,  and  perhaps  something  to  suggest,  the 
thought  of  the  action  of  the  Angel  of  the  Loud  in  the 
highest  sense  ;  of  Him  Who  manifested  Himself  to  His 
first  martyr  under  the  New  Covenant  in  the  moment  of 
his  supreme  need. 

107.  There  is  greater  difficulty  in  attaining  a  clear 
view  of  the  Vision  (ch.  vii)  of  the  Ancient  of  days  and  of 
one  like  a  (not  the)  son  of  man,  who  came  to  the  Ancient  of 
days,  and  they  hr ought  him  near  hefore  him.  And  there 
ivas  given  him  dominion,  and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  cC'c. 
Sairit  Augustine  (De  Trinitate,  II.  xviii.  2,2))  understands 
the  Ancient  of  days  to  be  the  Father,  and  the  one  like 
unto  a  son  of  man,  the  Son,  both  seen  '  in  visible  form ' 
by  the  prophet.  There  are  grave  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  supposing  this,  especially  in  this  one  solitary 
instance,  of  the  First  Person  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
Such  a  supposition  must  be,  as  we  have  seen  {§§  70,  84, 
85,  89),  contrary  to  the  whole  current  of  Scripture 
language  on  the  subject :  and  it  has  led,  in  some 
portions   of  the   Church,    to    very   painful   results    in 


2 1 8  its  peculiarity  pm^alleled  by  [lect. 

Christian  Art.  The  superficially  apparent  necessity  for 
it  is  founded  on  the  ^rimd  facie  exclusive  reference  of 
the  phrase  one  like  a  son  of  man  to  Christ ;  from  which 
it  would  seem  to  follow  that  the  Ancient  of  days  must 
be  the  Father,  because  of  the  prophet's  distinct  mention 
of  Him.  But  we,  very  humbly,  think  another  view  is 
possible.  Adhering  to  the  deeply  important  principle 
that  the  visibly  manifested  God  is  ever  the  Divine  Son, 
we  would  suggest  that  a  close  comparison  of  the  three 
evidently  related  passages  {Isaiah  vi,  EzeJciel  i,  and 
Daniel  vii)  in  which  a  vision  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is 
described  by  Old  Testament  prophets,  with  each  other 
and  with  the  corresponding  description  {Revelation  i) 
by  the  Seer  of  the  New  Testament  (not  forgetting  the 
revelation,  and  the  language  in  which  it  is  described, 
vouchsafed  to  the  three  Apostles,  of  whom  Saint  John 
was  one,  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration),  compels  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  one  and  the  same  Personage  is 
described  in  all  the  four  passages ;  and  that  the  last  of 
them  removes  all  doubt  as  to  Who  that  is.  The  Old 
Testament  passages  disclose  a  glorious  human  Form 
enthroned  on  high  ;  and  all  three  describe  the  vision 
in  closely  similar  language.  The  New  Testament  dis- 
closes a  vision  of  the  same  Form,  lihe  unto  a  son  of  man, 
but  now  appropriately  walking  in  the  midst  of  the  seven 
golden  candlesticks,  which  symbolise  His  redeemed 
Church  on  earth ;  and  describes  Him  in  terms  that 
agree  with  the  earlier  visions.  Tlie  Ancient  of  days  is 
then  the  Son  of  God  as  manifested  in  His  Divine  glory. 
To  the  ancient  Church  (for  example,  to  Daniel)  He  was 
God,  simply ;  to  us  He  is  '  God  of  God,'  the  Son,  not 


IV.]  that  to  St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse.  219 

the  Father.  But,  regarding  the  Vision  from  tlie  sim- 
pler, the  earlier,  stand-point,  there  is  no  difSculty  in 
supposing  that  the  one  lihe  a  son  of  man,  whom  we 
now  know  to  be  really  one  with  the  Ancient  of  days, 
represents,  in  their  then  distinctness,  the  then  future 
facts  of  the  Incarnation  and  that  Kingdom  of  the  Incar- 
nate which  is  so  wonderfully  foretold  in  the  Prophecy 
of  Daniel.  To  us  who  are  in  and  of  that  Kingdom,  and 
who  know  the  fuller  truth,  He  Who  as  Man  received  it 
is  one  with  God  Who  gave  it ;  but,  for  the  clear  pre- 
sentation of  the  truth  before  it  was  realized  in  fact,  it 
was  necessary  that  its  two  elements  should  be  separately 
presented.  In  illustration  of  this  view  of  the  passage 
it  may  be  remarked,  that  we  find  an  exact  parallel  in 
the  Fourth  and  Fifth  chapters  of  the  Revelation.  The 
same  enthroned  Form  is  seen  ;  human  in  appearance, 
for  the  Sealed  Book  is  in  His  right  hand.  It  is  God  the 
Son  of  God  manifested  in  His  Divine  character.  As 
the  Incarnate  Redeemer  He  is  separately  presented  as 
a  Lamb  as  it  had  heen  slain,  in  which  character  He 
came  and  took  the  hook  out  of  the  right  hand  of  him  that 
sat  ujyon  the  throne.  Here  the  difficulty,  if  it  be  one, 
is  the  same  as  in  the  Vision  of  Daniel.  And  the  solu- 
tion is  the  same  :  In  each  case  both  representations 
belong  to  the  same  Person,  Who  unites,  as  we  Chris- 
tians know,  two  Natures,  and  so  two  Characters,  two 
Offices,  two  sets  of  functions.  Further,  closely  regard- 
ing the  phrase  employed  (which  is  not  the  Son  of  Man, 
but  one  like  a  son  ofman^,  we  ma}?-  discern  an  hitima- 

'  The  A.  V.  '  one  like  the   Son  of  man  '  is  iuaccunitc  on  the  face  of 
it,  apart  from  any  reference  to  the  original  or  the  Lxx.,  neither  of 


220        Share  of  the  Saints  in  the  Kingdom.      [lect. 

tion  of  the  further  marvel  that  the  Kingdom  of  the 
Incarnate  is  not  for  Himself  only,  but  is,  in  its  measure, 
shared  by  them  also  whom  He  is  not  ashamed  to  call 
His  hretliren  (Heh.  ii.  1 1 ).  There  was  given  unto  Him  a 
Kingdom  {Dan.  vii.  14)  ;  but  also  (18)  the  Saints  of  the 
Most  High  shall  take  the  Kingdom,  and  possess  the  King- 
dom for  ever,  even  for  ever  and  ever.  The  kingdoms  of 
this  world  (22)  made  war  with  the  saints,  and  -prevailed 
against  them ;  until  the  Ancient  of  days  came  (only  the 
Son  '  comes,'  and  He  '  came '  in  His  Incarnation),  and 
judgment  was  given  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High ;  and 
the  time  came  that  the  saints  ^possessed  the  kingdom.  .  .  . 
And  {27)  the  kingdom  and  dominion,  and  the  greatness 
of  the  kingdom  under  the  lohole  heaven,  shall  he  given  to 
the  ji}eoj)le  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  Kingdom 
(Lxx.  rj  e^ovcrla  avrov)  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  all 
dominions  shall  serve  and  obey  him.  (Compare  St.  Matt. 
xix.  28  ;  St.  Luke  xxii.  30  ;  i  Cor.  vi.  2  ;  Eev.  ii.  26  ; 
iii.  21  ;  XX.  4.)  In  Chap.  viii.  ver.  15  the  af])earance 
of  a  man  most  probably  refers  to  the  angel  Gabriel ;  but 
there  is  separate  mention  also  of  the  voice  of  a  man  which 
commands  him  to  make  Daniel  to  understand  the  vision 
of  the  Eam  and  the  He- goat  described  in  the  earlier 
verses  of  the  chapter.  No  further  description  is  given ; 
but  the  command  to  the  created  angel  is  suggestive  of 
the  Supreme  Angel.  (Compare  JE'2;eA;^eHx,  x;  Zechariah 
i.  8-1 1  ;  ii.  4  ;  iii.  4  ;  vi,  7  ;  on  which  see  §  109,  &c.). 
108.  The  Book  of  Daniel  concludes  with  the  account 

which  has  the  article ;  for  there  is  not,  nor  can  be,  any  like  The  Son 
of  man.  The  original  simply  means  a  human  being,  I'eferring  only  to 
the  visible  appearance. 


IV.]  The  'Great   Vision'  of  Daniel.  221 

(occupying  chs.  x,  xi,  xii)  (i)  of  what  the  propliet  styles 
(x.  8)  the  great  vision  of  a  certain  man  clothed  in  linen^ 
whose  glorious  appearance  he  describes  in  terms  that 
seem  to  point  to  the  Son  of  God,  and  {2)  of  the  great 
revelation  which  He  vouchsafed  to  him  of  icliat  should 
hefal  his  people  in  the  latter  days,  not  in  this  case  com- 
manding a  created  angel  to  intei'pret,  as  in  the  last 
example,  which  had  reference  to  heathen  kingdoms,  but 
undertaking  the  task  Himself  There  is  doubtless 
much  that  is  difficult  both  in  the  matter  and  in  the 
language  of  this  passage  ;  but  the  identification  of  the 
Man  clothed  m  li^ien  with  the  Angel  of  the  Lobd  and 
with  the  Prince  of  princes  of  Ban.  viii.  25,  seems  at 
least  probable.  He  is  clearly  distinct  from,  and  appa- 
rently superior  to  ^  Michael,  who  is  one  (or  the  first)  of 
the  chief  princes  (the  archangel,  St.  Jude  9,  Rev.  xii.  7), 
and  is  the  prmce,  or  guardian-angel,  of  Israel. 
Comparing  the  language  of  Judges  v.  23  : — 

Curse  ye  Meroz  !  said  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
Curse  ye  bitterly  the  inhabitants  thereof ! 
Because  they  came  not  to  the  help  of  the  LoiiD, 
To  the  help  of  the  LoiiB  among  the  mighty ; 

we  need  not,  perhaps,  find  a  serious  difficulty  in  the 
allusions  to  the  hel])  of  Michael  (x.  13,  21). 

More  difficult  is  the  mention  (x.  13)  of  successful 
withstanding  by  the  prince  of  the  kingdom  of  Persia 
during  one-and-twenty  days  \  but  the  accomplishment 

^  E.  g.  note  the  language  used  in  xi.  i,  '  / — even  I — stood  to  confirm 
and  strengthen  him,  where  tlie  "him  "  is  not  Darius  but  Michael 
(x.  22).  Rev.  J.  M.  Fuller,  ad  loc.  in  Speaker  s  Commentary. 


2  22  Interest  of  the  angelic  world  [lect. 

of  God's  great  purposes  is,  we  know,  delayed  by  the 
action  of  His  creatures,  not  only  in  active  opposition 
as  enemies,  but  in  the  intercessory  pleading  of  His 
'holy  ones'  for  those  (it  may  be  unworthy)  on  whose 
behalf  they  are  interested.  Compare  Abraham's  inter- 
cession for  Sodom,  and  the  language  of  the  angel 
of  judgment  to  Lot,  whose  mere  presence  was  a  hin- 
drance, Haste  thee,  escape ;  for  I  cannot  do  anything  till 
thou  he  come  thither.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
the  struggle  of  opposing  principles,  embodied — and 
that,  doubtless,  to  any  but  the  Supreme  Intelligence, 
in  the  strangest  mixture  and  confusion — in  the  con- 
flicting forces  of  human  society  and  politics,  is  watched 
with  the  most  absorbing  interest  by  angelic  spirits, 
good  and  evil,  among  whom  there  is  some  mysteriously 
corresponding  conflict.  And  as  the  Satan,  the  Accuser, 
the  Adversary,  stands  at  the  right  hand  {Zech.  iii.  i)  of 
the  holy  and  good  (and  this  may  be  true  of  nations  or 
churches  as  of  individuals)  who  are  on  God's  side,  to 
resist  them ;  or  intrudes  into  the  assembly  of  the  sons 
of  God  (Job  i.  6)  when  they  come  to  j>resent  themselves 
before  the  Loed,  to  point  out  the  mixture  of  their 
motives,  the  defects  and  infirmities  of  their  characters, 
or  worse,  their  sins — so  the  holy  angels,  the  lovers  of 
mankind,  may  plead  for  respite  and  merciful  considera- 
tion for  individual  souls,  for  classes,  for  parties,  for 
nations,  for  causes,  which  are  not  wholly  on  God's  side, 
which  are  mixed  and  doubtful,  yet  not  wholly  evil ; 
and  may  put  forward  what  is  good  in  them  (though,  if 
it  be  so,  the  evil  that  is  in  them  outweighs  it)  either  in 
arrest  or  delay  of  judgment,  or  in  plea  for  the  advance- 


IV,]  in  the  strife  between  good  and  evil.  223 

ment  of  their  (supposed)  interests,  i.e.  as  those  interests 
are  partially  viewed  hy  finite  intelligences.  The  great 
drama  of  human  history,  especially  as  viewed  in  the 
light  of  the  Incarnation,  may  well  be,  in  its  gradual 
unfolding  of  the  high  purposes  of  God,  the  object  of 
the  closest  attention  to  a  vast  cloud  of  (to  us  unseen) 
ivitnesses ;  and  may  be  among  the  things  (perhaps  the 
chief  thing)  which  the  angels  desire  to  look  into.  We 
may  be  sure  that  it  presents  to  the  deeply  engaged 
thought  of  their  superior  intelligence  the  field  on  which 
the  one  supremely  vital  issue,  of  the  great  conflict 
between  good  and  evil,  is  being  fought  out,  and  on 
which  it  will  be  finally  and  gloriously  decided.  On 
that  great  issue  there  is  ivar  in  heaven,  war  between 
principalities  and  powers,  in  the  heavenly  flaces ;  and 
sides,  we  doubt  not,  are  taken,  and  zealously  main- 
tained, in  a  generous  spirit  of  loyal  partizanship  for 
the  good  and  the  true  and  right,  and  of  earnest  sup- 
port to  whatever,  amid  the  tangled  web  of  human 
affairs,  seems  to  angelic  minds  to  make  for  them,  and 
for  the  final  victory  of  good.  Some  glimpses  of  the 
inner  process  of  this  tremendous  struggle  were  disclosed 
to  the  man  greatly  beloved,  for  his  own  support  and  that 
of  God's  ancient  Church,  in  a  time  of  special  trial,  and 
for  the  enlio'htenment  and  consolation  of  the  Church  of 
all  future  ages.  It  was  not  unbecoming  the  dignity,  or 
inconsistent  with  the  functions,  as  it  was  wholly  con- 
sonant to  the  loving-kindness,  of  the  One  Mediator  re- 
vealed as  the  great  High  Priest,  the  man  clothed  in  linen, 
i.e.  the  priestly  vesture  (Ban.  x.  4,  xii.  6.  7),  that  He 
should  Himself  disclose  in  outline  the  future  fortunes 


2  24    Appearances  in  the   Visions  of  Zechariah.  [lect. 

of  His  Church  to  His  long-tried  and  faithful  martyr- 
servant. 

109.  The  Tiext  mention  of  any  revelation  of  tlie 
Angel  of  the  Lord  under  that  title  occurs  in  the  series 
of  eight  prophetic  visions  which  the  prophet  Zechariah 
saio  hy  night,  on  the  four  and  tioentieth  day  of  the  eleventh 
month  (Sebat)  in  the  second  year  of  Darius,  and  which 
are  recorded  in  chs.  i.  7.  to  vi,  8  ^  In  the  most  recent 
English  commentary  (by  Canon  Drake  in  the  Speakers 
Commentary)  on  this  passage,  the  identification  of  the 
Angel  of  the  Loed  with  Jehovah  is  fully  admitted.  On 
the  other  hand,  Dr.  Pusey  {Minor  Frojjhets,  ad  loc.) 
allowing  the  man  riding  upon  a  red  horse  to  be  '  doubt- 
less the  same  who  appeared  to  Joshua  in  form  of  man, 
preparing  thereby  for  the  revelation  of  God  manifest  in 
the  fleshy  thinks  '  it  probably  was  St.  Michael,'  as  St. 
Jerome  tells  us  the  Jews  of  his  day  thought.  Yet,  with 
the  deepest  respect  for  the  judgment  of  so  great  a 
biblical  scholar,  it  must  be  said  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  read  his  language  on  the  subject,  either  in  his 
Lectures  on  the  Prophet  Daniel  (pp.  515-522)  or  in  his 
commentary  on  Zechariah,  without  feeling  that  it  seems, 
as  it  were  involuntarily,  to  bear  witness  to  the  fuller 
truth  of  the  more  primitive  view  and  to  its  far  higher 
consistency  and  clearness. 

^  In  the  later  portion  the  following  passage  is  noticeable,  as 
showing,  Ly  the  parallelism,  the  divine  character  ascribed  to  the 
Angel  of  the  Loed  : — 

In  that  day  shall  the  Lord  defend  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  ; 
And  he  that  is  feeble  among  them  at  that  day  shall  be  as  David; 
And  the  house  of  David  shall  be  as  God, 
As  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  before  them.     {Zech.  xii.  8.) 


IV.]  Dr.  Puscys  comments  upon  them.  225 

Compare,  for  example,  observing  the  capitals,  On  Zech. 
1  8  'He  [the  rider  on  the  red  horse]  rides  here,  as  Leader 
of  the  host  who  follow  Him  ;  to  Him  the  others  report, 
and  He  instructs  the  Angel  who  instructs  the  prophet.' 
On  i.  12,  '  So  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  in  whom  God  was, 
exercised  at  once  a  mediatorial  oflBce  with  God,  typical 
of  our  Lord's  High  Priest's  prayer  (St.  John  xvii)  and 
acted  as  God.'  On  ii.  i,  ^  man  with  a  measuring  line  in 
his  hand.  'Probably  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  of  whom 
Ezekiel  has  a  like  vision.  "  He  who  before  [Dr.  Pusey  is 
quoting  from  St.  Jerome  ad  loc.'\  when  he  lift  up  his  eyes 
had  seen  in  i\iQ  four  horns  things  mournful,  now  again 
lifts  up  his  eyes  to  see  a  man  of  whom  it  is  written  (Zech. 
vi.  12),  Behold  a  man  whose  name  is  the  Branch  ;  of  whom 
we  read  above  (i.  8),  Behold  a  man  riding  upon  a  red  horse, 
and  he  stood  among  the  myrtle  trees,  which  were  in  the  bottom. 
Of  whom  too  the  Father  saith  ;  He  builded  my  city  (Heb. 
xi.  10),  whose  builder  and  maker  is  God.  He  too  is  seen 
by  Ezekiel  in  a  description  like  this  (xl.  3),  a  man  whose 
appearance  was  like  the  appearance  of  brass,  i.e.  burnished 
and  shining  as  fire,  tvith  a  li^ie  of  fax  in  his  hand  a?id  a 
measuring  reed^  '  Surely  it  is  easier  to  understand  this  of 
the  Son  of  God  than  of  any  creature.  To  Him  (see  §  107) 
a  comparison  of  Ezekiel's  description  with  St.  John's  in 
the  Apocalypse  seems  decisively  to  point.  Again,  on  iii. 
If  Joshua,  the  High  Priest,  standing  before  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord,  '  probably  to  be  judged  by  him ;  as  in  the  New 
Testament,  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  Man  ;  for  although 
standing  before  whether  in  relation  to  man  or  God,  ex- 
presses attendance  upon,  yet  here  it  appears  only  as  a 
condition,  contemporaneous  with  that  of  Satan's,  to 
accuse  him.  Although,  moreover,  the  Angel  speaks  with 
authority,  yet  God's  Presence  in  him  is  not  spoken  of  so 
distinctly,  that  the  High  Priest  would  be  exhibited  as 
standing  before  him,  as  in  his  oflBce  before  God.'  And  on 
iii.  4,  And  lie  [the  Angel  of  the  Lord]  spake  to  those  who 
stood  before  Ilim,  '  the  ministering  Angels  who  had  waited 

Q 


226  The  five  ' Dra7Jiatis  personae'  [lect. 

on  the  Ang-el  of  the  Lord  to  do  His  bidding-.'  And  on 
vi.  8,  Then  cried  he  upon  me^ '  Then  God,  or  the  Angel  of  the 
Lordi  who  speaks  of  what  belonged  to  God  alone,  called 
me  (probably  '  loudly ')  so  as  to  command  his  attention  to 
this  which  most  immediately  concerned  his  people.  These 
have  quieted  My  spirit  in  the  North  cojintri/,  or  rather,  have 
made  my  anger  to  rest  on,  i.e.  have  carried  it  thither  [i.e.  to 
Babylon]  and  deposited  it  there,  made  it  to  rest  upon 
them  [the  Chaldaeans],  as  its  abode,  as  St.  John  saith  of 
the  unbelieving.  The  rvrath  of  God  ahideth  on  him.'  And 
on  xii,  8,  The  house  of  David  shall  be  as  God,  i.e.  in  Christ, 
the  Son  of  David,  '  And  this  the  prophet  brings  out  by 
adding,  As  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  before  them,  i.e.  that  one 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  in  whom  His  very  Presence  and  His 
Name  was  ;  Who  went  before  them,  to  guide  them.  Else, 
having  said,  lilce  God,  it  had  been  to  lessen  what  he  had 
just  said,  to  add,  like  the  Angel  of  the  Lord.''  Surely  the 
language  of  these  comments  is  far  more  consistent  with 
the  earlier  belief  that  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  was  the  divine 
Son  of  God  than  with  the  later  one  that  he  was  the 
Archangel  Michael. 

The  chief  difficulty  felt  by  the  student  of  these  eight 
visions  is  that  of  clearly  distinguishing  and  identifying 
the  superhuman  dramatis  'personae  with  whom  the  pro- 
phet is  in  ecstatic  communication.  They  appear  to  be 
five  in  number,  viz. : — 

1.  Tlie  man  riding  ti^on  a  red  horse,  who  stood  among 
the  myrtle  trees  (i.  8).  He  is  clearly  identified  (i.  ii) 
with  The  Angel  of  the  Lobd. 

2.  The  riders  on  the  red,  speckled,  and  ivhite  horses. 
These  are  subordinate  created  angels,  who  report  to  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord. 

3.  The  angel  described  by  the  prophet  in  eleven 
places  (i.  9,  13,  14,  19  ;  ii.  3  ;  iv.  i,  4.  5  ;  v.  5,  to;  vi. 


IV.]  of  the  EigJU   Visions  of  Zcchartah.  227 

4)  by  the  phrase  the  angel  that  talked  with  me,  or,  more 
exactly,  that  sjmhe  in  me.  So  Dr.  Pusey,  ad  loc,  who 
adds,  '  The  very  rare  expression  seems  meant  to  convey 
the  thought  of  an  inward  speaking,  wliereby  the  words 
should  be  borne  directly  into  the  soul  without  the  inter- 
vention of  the  ordinary  outward  organs.  God  says  to 
Moses  [Numhers  xii.  6-9),  If  there  is  a  j^royhet  among 
yon,  I  the  Loiw  ivill  make  Myself  hnoicn  nnto  him  in  a 
vision,  I  ivill  sj)eah  [lit.]  in  him  in  a  dream.  Afy  ser- 
vant Moses  is  not  so — In  him  will  I  sj^eak  mouth  to 
mouth;  and  Habakkuk  says  (ii.  i)  of  the  like  inward 
teaching,  I  will  watch  to  see,  ivhat  He  ivill  speak  in  me. 
It  is  the  characteristic  title  of  one  attendant-angel,  who 
was  God's  expositor  of  the  visions  to  Zechariah.'  Simi- 
larly Canon  Drake  (Si^eaker's  Commentary,  ad  loc) 
says  he  was  *  The  [created]  angel,  whose  office  it  was 
...  to  interpret  to  the  prophet  what  he  saw  and 
heard.' 

4.  In  the  third  vision  (chap,  ii.)  the  man  ivith  a 
measuring  line  in  his  hand,  whom  Dr.  Pusey  thinks  to 
be  '  probably  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  of  whom  Ezekiel 
has  a  like  vision.' 

5.  In  the  same  vision  (ii.  3)  another  angel,  who  went 
out  to  meet  the  angel  that  talked  ivith  the  prophet,  when 
ho  (tlic  angel)  ivent  forth. 

Besides  these  must  also  be  observed  in  three  places 
(i.  13,  and  20,  and  iii.  i)  the  mention  of  the  Lord,  Who 
is  in  each  almost  certainly  identified  with  The  Angel 
of  the  L  (lit  1 1. 

There  is  in  many  passages  considerable  uncertainty 
as  to  the  exact  reference  of  the  relative  pronouns  lie, 

Q  2 


2  28     *  The  angel  which  spake  in'  the  Prophet,  [lect. 

liim,  &c. ;  for  example,  i.  21 ;  ii.  4,  8  ;  iii.  i.  4  ;  iv.  11, 
T2,  13,  14;  V.  I,  3;  vi.  7,  8. 

Perhaps  the  chief  peculiarity  of  this  series  of  visions 
lies  in  the  action  of  the  angel  lohich  spake  in  the  pro- 
phet. It  is  perhaps  not  quite  clear  that  he  was  a 
created  angel.  His  peculiar  function  of  interior  in- 
struction seems  to  point  to  a  higher  Power.  In  i.  9 
the  prophet  says  to  the  man  on  the  red  horse  (for  the 
angel  that  spake  in  him  has  not  yet  been  mentioned), 
0  my  lord  (""iib^  Adoni),  what  are  these,  i.  e.  the  other 
riders  on  horses  1  The  angel  that  spake  in  him  (now  first 
mentioned)  said  unto  him,  I  will  shew  thee  ivhat  these  he. 
Yet  it  is  not  he,  but  tlie  man  that  stood  among  the 
myrtle  trees,  who  really  gives  the  explanation,  These  are 
they  whom  the  Lord  hath  sent  to  walk  to  and  fro  through 
the  earth.  Here  is  identity  of  function  and  of  action,  if 
not  of  personality.  It  is  possible — may  we  not  sup- 
pose ? — that  the  same  Divine  Logos  may  be  thus  sepa- 
rately presented  at  once  as  the  Angel  of  the  Loed  and 
as  the  angel  that  spake  in  the  prophet.  Or  it  may  be, 
possibly,  that  the  latter  is  a  mysterious  hint  of  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  One  in  Substance,  as  One 
in  Will  and  Purpose,  with  the  Logos,  as  with  the 
Father,  though  distinct  in  Person ;  for  example,  in 
i.  1 2  it  is  observable  that  though  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
intercedes  with  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  Lord  answers, 
loith  good  and  comfortable  words,  not  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord,  but  the  angel  that  spake  in  the  prophet.  This 
angel  it  was  who  communicated  them  to  the  prophet, 
and  bade  him  announce  them.  This  would  seem  to 
suggest  the  inward  operation  of  the  Logos  through  the 


rv.]  Special  passages  in  Zechariah,  229 

Holy  Spirit.  A  close  examination  of  the  action  and 
language  ascribed  in  these  visions  to  this  mysterious 
angel  seems  to  show  that  they  may  consist  with  either 
hypothesis.  They  are,  perhaps,  better  explained  by 
either  than  by  that  of  a  created  angel ;  but  best  ^  per- 
haps, by  the  supposition  of  a  separate  presentation  of 
the  One  divine  Angel  of  the  Loud,  at  once  under  that 
title,  and  also  as  tlie  angel  that  sj^ake  in  the  prophet, 
including  the  possibility  (or  certainty  1)  that  the  agency 
whereby  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  at  the  same  time  that 
He  was  seen  outwardly,  spake  inwardly  in  the  prophet, 
was  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Looked  at  in  this  way 
the  surface  ambiguity  of  the  reference  of  the  ^jronoun 
he  in  i.  21  becomes  intelligible.  It  may  equally  refer 
to  the  Lord  of  ver.  20,  or  to  the  a^igel  of  ver.  19. 
Similarly  of  the  pronoun  He  in  iii.  i.  In  vi.  7  and  8 
the  same  pronoun,  though  its  last  antecedent  is  the 
angel  (vi,  5),  i.  e.  the  angel  that  sj)ahe  in  the  prophet 
of  vi.  4 — yet  introduces  language  which,  with  Dr. 
Pusey,  we  can  only  assign  to  '  God,  or  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord.'  Here  is  another  apparent  identification  of  the 
latter  with  the  angel  that  s^aJce  in  Zechariah. 

Our  view  of  the  Divine  Personality  of  the  Angel  of 
the  Lord  is  strongly  supported  by  such  passages  as ; — 

i.  II.  The  inferior  angels  whom  the  Lord  had  se7it  to 
walk  to  and  fro  through  the  earth  rej^ort  to  the  Angel 
of  the  Lord. 

iii.  2.   The   Lord   who   said   unto   Satan,   Tlie   Lord 

'  Because  of  the  (apparently)  visible  aj)peai-ance  (ii.  3  and  v.  5)  of 
the  communing  angel,  which  seems  alien  to  the  Holy  Spirit. 


230  and  in  Malachi,  [lect. 

rebuke  thee,  0  Satan,  must  be  The  angel  of  the  Loud, 
before  Whom  the  High  Priest  stood. 

iii.  4.  He  gives  orders  to  the  created  angels  that  stood 
before  him. 

iv.  8,  9.  The  word  of  the  Loeb  came  unto  me,  sayincj 
. »  .  the  Loud  of  hosts  hath  sent  me  unto  you — with  which 
compare  the  similar  language  of  ii.  8-1 1,  which  is  only 
intelligible  as  spoken  in  the  Person  of  the  Eternal  Son, 
sent  by  the  Father. 

no.  Our  survey  of  the  passages  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment which  speak  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  closes  with 
the  well-known  words  of  Malachi,  which  are  confessedly 
decisive  as  to  His  Divine  character.  We  read  {Malachi 
iii.  i),  Tlie  Lord,  ivhom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to 
his  tem])le,  even  the  Angel  of  the  covenant,  ivhom  ye 
delight  in. 

On  this  Dr.  Pusey  writes  thus  : — '  He  who  should  come 
was  iJie  Lord,  again  Almighty  God,  since,  in  usage  too, 
none  else  is  called  '■'  the  Lord"  (""."^isn'  ^^^-  ^3-  ^7'  34- 
23  ;  Is.  I.  24 ;  3.  I  ;  10.  if>,  '^'^  ;  29.  4)  as  none  else  can 
be.  The  temple  also,  to  which  He  was  to  come,  the 
temple  of  God,  is  His  own.  The  Messenger,  and  the  Angel 
of  the  Covenant,  plainly,  even  from  the  pai-allelism,  is  the 
same  as  the  LordJ  He  then  quotes  from  Pococke,  as 
follows  : — '  All  Christian  interpreters  are  agreed  that  this 
Lord  is  Christ,  Whom  God  hath  made  both  Lord  and  Christ, 
and  Who  is  Lord  over  all  (Acts  2.  ;^6  ;  10.  36)  ;  by  Whom 
all  things  were  made,  are  sustained  and  governed  ;  Who 
is,  as  the  root  of  the  word  imports  (*,ii^  from  'n^)'  ^^^^ 
basis  and  foundation,  not  of  any  private  family,  tribe,  or 
kingdom,  but  of  all  ;  by  J f 'horn  are  all  things  and  we  by 
Him  ;  and  Whose  we  are  also  by  right  of  redemption  ; 
and  so  He  is  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of  kings,  deservedly 


ly.]  indicating  the  Divine  Personality  231 

called  the  Lord;'  and  adds,  of  his  own,  'As  then  the 
special  presence  of  God  was  often  indicated  in  connection 
with  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  so,  here.  He  Who  was  to  come 
was  entitled  the  AniTcel  or  messenger  of  the  covenant,  as 
God  also  calls  Him  the  covenant  itself  (Isa.  42.  6),  I  wilt 
give  Thee  for  a  covenant  of  the  people,  a  light  of  the  Gentiles. 
He  it  was,  the  Angel  of  His  Presence  (Isa.  63.  9),  Who 
saved  His  former  people,  in  Whom  His  Name  was,  and 
Who,  by  the  prerogative  of  God,  would  not  pardon  their 
transgressions  (Ex.  23.  2i),  He  should  be  (Heb.  12.24; 
8.  6)  the  Mediator  of  the  nezo  and  better  covenant.' 


III.  Thus  we  trax3e  throufrhout  the  volume  of  the 
Old  Testament  the  gracious  intervention,  from  time  to 
time,  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  One  Mediator,  in  the 
character  of  Tlie  Angel  of  the  Lord,  sent  by  the  Father, 
and  seen  in  human  form  by  man,  in  waking  life  and  in 
vision,  in  significant  preparation  for  His  permanent 
Incarnation.  This  great  Presence,  so  clearly  appre- 
liended  by  the  earlier  Christian  writers  and  Apologists, 
and,  in  later  times,  so  largely  admitted,  outside  the 
Koman  and  Greek  Communions,  i.  e.  by  the  great 
majority  of  orthodox  reformed,  and  especially  English, 
biblical  writers,  lights  up  the  whole  previous  Dispensa- 
tion with  a  wonderful  anticipation  of  the  glorious  future 
Gospel.  It  binds  together,  as  nothing  else  does,  the 
Old  Testament  in  a  compact  unity  with  the  New ; 
giving  a  special  strength  and  consistency  to  the  great 
Eevelation  contained  in  the  two.  Read  in  the  light  of 
this  bond  of  coherence,  the  great  saying  of  Saint  Augus- 
tine receives  additional  force  and  meaning.  Novum  Tes- 
tamentum  in  vetere  latet ;    Vetus  Testamentum  in  novo 


232  of  the  ^  Angel  of  the  Lord! 

jpatet ;  and,  taking  prophecy  in  its  widest,  truest,  sense, 
i.  e.  for  tlie  whole  inspired  utterance  of  the  wliole  Bible 
as  a  historic  Eevelation,  it  is  seen  clearly  that  its  spirit, 
its  whole  inner  meaning  and  aim,  is  the  hearing  witness 
to  Jesus,  the  Same  in  the  yesterday  of  the  Old  Cove- 
nant, as  in  the  to-day  of  the  New. 


LECTURE  Y. 

THE  MEDIATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  GOD  UNDER 
THE  LAW. 

Psalm  ii.  6.  '  As  for  Me,  I  have  anointed  My  King  upon  Zion, 
the  mountain  of  My  Sanctuary.' 

112.  From  the  consideration  of  the  Theophanies  we 
pass  on  to  consider  the  general  action  of  the  One  Medi- 
ator under  the  Law.  It  may  conveniently  be  regarded 
inider  tlie  familiar  division  into  the  Prophetic,  the 
Sacerdotal,  and  the  Eegal.  But  first  it  must  be  pre- 
mised that  it  is  throughout  a  veiled  action.  Only  the 
Incarnation  reveals  Him  as  ihe  One  Mediator  hehveen 
God  and  men,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus.  Only  the  New 
Covenant — and  it  is  its  crowning  glory — discloses  to  us, 
in  visible  and  human  presence,  and  speaking  with  tender 
human  accents,  the  one  invisible  Divine  Personality  of 
the  Eternal  Son,  the  living  and  life-giving  Personal 
Word  (i  Cor.  xv.  45),  of  Whom  it  could  then  alone  be 
said  that  that  Life  was  manifested,  and  ive  have  seen  it  ; 
we  have  heard  Him,  ive  have  seen  Him  with  our  eyes, 
and  our  hands  have  handled  Him ;  we  have  eaten  and 
drunh  icith  Him  after  He  rose  from  the  dead  ;  and,  That 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we  unto  you,  that 
ye  may  have  communion  ivith  us ;  and  truly  our  com- 
munion is  with  the  Father,  and  tvith  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ  (i  St.  John  i.  i,  &c.).     Such  language  as  this — 


2  34  -F/^//  revelation,  impossible  before,         [lect. 

language  of  divine  unspeakaLle  blessedness,  language 
declaring  the  stupendous  fact  wliicli  lies  at  the  base  of 
our  common  Christian  Faith  and  Life  and  Hope — could 
not  have  been  written  before  the  long-promised  union 
had  become  an  accomplished  fact,  and,  further,  had 
been  clearly  realized,  both  in  itself,  its  historic  reality, 
and  its  permanence,  and  in  some,  at  least,  of  its  results 
and  consequences,  by  those  who  were  nearest  to  it. 
Before  that  time  the  gracious  intervention  of  the  Son 
of  God  between  God  and  man,  real  as  we  can  now  see 
it  to  have  been,  was  necessarily  veiled ;  because  the 
time  had  not  yet  come  when  mankind,  even  as  repre- 
sented by  the  Chosen  Eace,  could  safely  bear  the 
revelation  of  a  plural  Personality  within  the  Divine 
Essence,  or  rise  to  the  glorious  faith  in  a  Mediator 
between  itself  and  God  Who  should  be  Himself  Divine; 
and  Whose  true  Divinity  should  set  in  a  clear  light  the 
essential  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  that  without  in  the 
least  obscuring  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  Divine 
Unity.  How  clearly  Christian  thought  can  now  accept 
and  embrace,  in  all  the  fulness  of  each  and  without 
confusion,  the  sublime  verities  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity 
and  of  the  Unity  in  Trinity,  as  well  as  of  the  permanent 
Incarnation  of  the  Second  Person  in  the  perfection  and 
reality  of  our  human  nature ;  and  can  feel,  not  only 
that  they  are  true,  as  matter  of  Eevelation,  but  also 
that  they  must  be  true  by  reason  of  their  absolute 
satisfyingness,  morally,  intellectually,  and  spiritually; 
every  thoughtful  and  instructed  Christian  is  well 
aware.  Hence  to  such  an  one  the  Faith  of  the  Nicene 
and  Athanasian  Symbols  is  the  one  possession  which 


v.]  710W  vouchsafed  io  Christian  faith.  235 

in  his  estimation  transcends  all  others.  It  is  that  for 
the  sake  of  which  he  most  prizes  the  gift  of  life, 
and  the  added  grace  of  his  election  to  Baptism  and 
education  within  the  Christian  Pale.  It  is  that  for 
which,  as  a  present  joy  and  an  endless  promise,  he 
most  thanks  God,  the  Knowledge  of  Whom,  the  Only 
True  God,  and  of  Jesus  Christ  Whom  He  has  sent,  he 
knows  to  be,  even  now.  Eternal  Life.  In  the  One 
Faith,  in  these  Symbols  so  clearly  stated,  so  sharply 
and  distinctly,  yet  guardedly,  defined,  he  feels  himself 
to  possess  the  condensed  essence  and  sum,  as  to  all 
necessary  points,  of  the  great  Kevelation  of  the  Being 
and  Character  and  Purposes  of  God,  and  of  the  redeem- 
ing Work  of  Christ.  And,  further,  in  that  definite 
Faith  he  finds  the  one  key  to  the  right  understanding 
of  the  Revelation  itself,  as  a  whole,  and  in  its  separate 
parts  and  progressive  stages,  notwithstanding  the  va- 
riety and  complexity  of  structure  and  contents  which 
arise  from  its  actual  historic  form.  To  him — if  he  has 
really  understood  and  prized  the  full  glory  of  his 
Catholic  inheritance — the  Three  Divine  Persons  into 
Whose  One  Name  he  was  baptized  stand  clearly  re- 
vealed in  their  blessed  relation  to  himself,  in  their 
several  yet  united  work  of  love  unspeakable  toward 
himself;  the  Father  Who  made  him,  the  Son  Who 
redeemed  him,  the  Holy  Ghost  Who  sanctifieth  him, 
Three  Persons  and  One  God,  in  Whom,  even  now,  in 
an  ineffable  nearness  and  reality,  in  a  supernatural  as 
well  as  in  a  natural  sense,  he  live^  and  moves  and  has 
his  being,  and  Who  dwells  in  him,  an  ever-present  joy 
which  only  sin  can  take  away  or  interrupt. 


236        Before  the  l7icar7iation,  the  Mediation     [lect. 

113.  But  before  the  completed  Incarnation,  with 
its  consequences  —  consequences  which  could  only  be 
reached  through  it  —  of  the  removal  of  sin  by  the 
Atoning  Death,  and  the  Gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
enlightenment  and  renewal  to  all  who  by  repentance 
and  faith  were  capable  of  It,  this  could  not  be.  Hence 
the  operation  of  the  Mediator  was,  as  a  rule,  itself  me- 
diate; itself,  the  while,  secret  and  undisclosed,  although 
incessant.  It  effected  itself  through  the  instrumentality 
of  inspired  men  unto  whom  the  Word  of  the  Lord  came, 
and  through  the  subordinate  agency  of  the  standing 
institutions  which  they  by  divine  command  originated. 
And  it  effected  itself  also  through  tlie  general  super- 
intendence of  a  *  never- failing  Providence  '  ordering  all 
things,  small  and  great,  in  human  history;  and,  yet 
again,  through  those  inward  voices  and  inspirations  to 
which,  by  the  mercy  of  Him  Who  is  the  common  Maker 
of  all,  the  conscience  of  no  man  has  ever,  save  through 
his  own  fault,  been  a  stranger.  Thus  secret  was  the 
ordinary  operation  of  the  unseen  Word  of  God  in  the 
world  of  man  as  in  the  realm  of  nature.  Only  (as  we 
have  seen)  at  specially  critical  periods  of  the  seemingly 
slow  Preparation  for  the  Kingdom  of  God,  there  were 
directly  presented  to  the  sense  of  ear  or  eye,  or  both, 
communications  as  from  God ;  and  then  in  a  manner 
so  evidently  exceptional  and  mysterious  as  at  once  to 
make  the  occasions  more  impressive  and  yet  free  from 
any  danger  of  weakening  men's  sense  of  the  sole  un- 
approachable Majesty  and  Only-ness  of  the  One  God ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  they  filled  the  heart  of  God's 
People  with  an  abiding  sense  of  His  love  and  tender 


v.]  of  the  Eternal  Son  was  veiled.  237 

care  for  them,  individually  or  as  a  nation,  especially  in 
circumstances  of  danger  and  distress.  Who  it  was  that 
thus  audibly,  and  even  visibly,  spake  to  the  Patriarchs 
and  Prophets,  to  the  earthly  mediator  of  the  Legal 
Dispensation,  to  the  Judges  and  Deliverers  of  the 
Jewish  Nation,  they  themselves  could  not,  needed  not, 
to  fully  know  as  we  know  now.  It  was  enough  for 
them  to  know  that  God  did  speak  to  them  ;  and  that 
their  consequent  duty  was  absolute  and  imperative. 
Yet  in  the  circumstances  of  such  special  manifestations, 
as  they  stand  recorded,  and  in  the  inspired  language 
also  of  Psalmists  and  of  Prophets,  there  was  that  which 
not  obscurely  intimated  not  only  the  Divine  Personality 
of  Him  Who  sent  but  also,  as  distinct,  that  of  Him 
Who  was  sent,  Who  came,  and  Who  was  actually  heard 
and  seen. 

114.  How  they  to  whom  these  revelations  were 
vouchsafed,  or  they  who  in  after  ages  read  the  record 
of  them,  solved  the  difficulty  (if  they  were  conscious  of 
it,  and  reflected  upon  it),  we  are  not  told.  Yet  the 
intimations  were  there.  Beyond  the  Visitations  and 
Appearances  which  were  discussed  in  the  last  Lecture, 
such  passages  as  T}iou  art  7ny  Son,  this  clay  have  I 
hegotten  Thee  {Psalm  ii.  7),  or,  The  Lord  said  unto  my 
Lord  {Jehovah  said  to  Adonai),  Sit  Thou  on  My  right 
Hand  {Psalm  ex.  i),  might  have  raised  the  question  in 
other  minds  than  theirs  to  whom  Christ  pointedly  put 
it.  If  David  in  sjnrit  call  the  Christ  his  Lord,  hoiu  is 
He  then  his  son?  {St.  Matt.  xxii.  42).  We  may  well 
believe  that  when,  but  a  few  days  later,  the  Divine 
Word  Himself,  walking  with  the  sorrowful  pair  on  that 


238  Behind  I sraeVs  Prophets,  Priests,  and  Kings,  [lect. 

Easter- Sunday  afternoon  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  ex- 
^ouncled  unto  them  in  all  the  Scrii^tiires  the  things 
concerning  Himself  {St.  Luke  xxiv.  13),  or  when,  for 
the  larger  party  assembled  that  evening  in  Jerusalem 
in  doubt  and  fear,  He  ojpened  their  understanding  that 
they  might  understand  the  Scriptures,  the  occurrences 
we  have  specially  considered  must  have  been  among 
those  which,  now  lighted  up  with  a  new  and  unex- 
pected light,  carried  into  their  inmost  souls  that  inex- 
tinguishable faith,  both  in  the  Messiah-ship  and  in  the 
true  Godhead  of  Jesus,  which  was  later  embodied  in 
the  inspired  volume  of  the  New  Testament,  and  on 
which,  as  on  an  indestructible  rock,  the  Catholic  Church 
is  built. 

115.  The  consideration  of  the  veiled  Mediatorial 
relation  of  the  Son  of  God  to  the  Chosen  People  under 
the  Law  naturally  begins  from  the  appearance  of  The 
Angel  of  the  Lord  to  Moses  in  the  Burning  Bush.  We 
have  seen  (Lecture  IV)  that  the  unanimous  consent  of 
primitive  Christian  antiquity  regards  this  as  a  mani- 
festation of  the  Son  of  God.  With  this  we  must  con- 
nect the  very  remarkable  visible  revelation  of  the  God 
of  Israel  to  Moses  and  the  Elders  on  the  occasion  of 
the  Ratification  of  the  Covenant  after  the  Giving  of 
the  Law  {Exod.  xxiv).  In  these  two  incidents  we  find 
disclosed  at  its  very  commencement  the  Personality 
which  really  operated  behind  the  outward  adminis- 
tration of  that  whole  Legal  System  which  was  inau- 
gurated by  these  two  cardinal  incidents.  The  Prophets, 
Priests,  and  Kings  of  ancient  Israel,  beginning  from 
Moses  and  Aaron  themselves,  were  not  merely  the  types 


v.]      was  the  'One  Mediator  I  the  Eternal  Son,     239 

of  One  greater  Who  was  to  come.  They  were  through- 
out, in  tlieir  whole  exercise  of  their  several  functions, 
the  subordinate  agents  and  instruments,  for  tlie  pro- 
gressive education  of  His  People,  of  one  unseen  con- 
trolling Hand,  one  guiding  over-ruling  Mind,  the  Hand 
and  Mind  of  One  Who  was  indeed  the  Angel,  the 
Messenger,  of  the  Loud  to  His  People,  Himself  Divine. 
This  disclosure,  standing  as  it  does  at  the  opening  of 
the  Mosaic  Dispensation,  and  renewed,  as  it  was  from 
time  to  time,  during  its  course,  must  be  allowed  to 
have  a  decisive  influence  on  our  whole  view  of  the 
period.  Looking  at  the  unique  phenomenon  of  Hebrew 
Prophecy  as  a  whole  the  Christian  student  feels  com- 
pelled to  take  up  with  regard  to  it  this  position,  That 
all  those  to  whom  any  portion  of  the  spirit  and  gift 
of  Prophecy  was  vouchsafed,  from  the  Patriarchs  and 
Moses  and  Samuel  onwards,  were  the  earthly  visible 
human  mediators  of  a  growing  Kevelation  of  the  Sal- 
vation that  was  to  come,  but  that  behind  them  (so  to 
speak)  and  within  them,  in  their  inspired  prophetic 
utterance,  was  the  true,  the  One  Mediator,  the  Word 
of  God,  invisibly,  through  them,  teaching  His  Ancient 
Church  the  growing  truth  about  Himself  and  His 
future  Work,  for  them,  for  us,  and  for  all  the  world. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  'H  juaprupla  toO  'Itja-ov  iari  to 
TTvevfxa  tP/?  Trpocf^rjreiag  ('The  bearing  witness  to  Jesus 
is  the  spirit  of  Prophecy,'  Rev.  xix.  10)  from  the 
Protevangelium  onwards  ;  and  the  Sjnrit  of  Christ,  the 
Logos,  the  Eternal  Word  and  Wisdom  of  the  Father, 
was  in  them  (i  Pet.  i.  11),  for  their  sake  and  for  our 
sake  who  were  to  follow.     Thus  in  the  Prophetic  Func- 


240     the  Jesus  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  [lect. 

tion  was  Christ  the  true,  though  the  as  yet  unrevealed, 
Mediator,  the  gracious  and  considerate  TiaiZa^wy6<5  (Edu- 
cator) communicating  to  each  generation,  through  His 
chosen  instruments,  such  supernatural  knowledge  of 
spiritual  truth  and  of  God's  loving  purposes  towards 
Mankind  as  each  was  able  to  bear,  until  He,  the  Great 
Prophet  like  unto  Moses,  unto  WJio^n  they  should  hearken, 
being  raised  up  from  the  midst  of  them,  of  their  brethren, 
from  among  themselves  {Deut.  xviii.  15),  should  stand 
revealed  in  human  flesh,  and  should  speak  to  them  the 
New  Law,  not  amid  the  terrors  of  Sinai, 

'  In  cloud  and  majesty  and  awe,' 

but  sitting,  a  Man  amongst  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren, on  the  green  mount  that  overhangs  the  sun- 
flashing  ripples  of  the  Galilaean  Lake.  Then  was  He 
listened  to  by  the  simple  folk  of  despised  Galilee  eagerly, 
reverently,  earnestly,  delightedly,  for  never  man  spake 
like  this  man.  They  hung  upon  Him  (St.  Luke  xix.  48), 
the  humble  especially,  and  the  poor.  Their  hearts  burned 
within  them  as  they  listened ;  for  His  words  awoke  an 
answering  chord  in  all  that  was  best  and  truest  and 
deepest,  most  truly  human,  and  so  most  akin  to  His 
perfect  human  nature,  in  man  or  woman.  They  hung 
upon  Him,  for  they  felt,  as  children  do,  by  instinct, 
the  warm  kindred  love  out  of  whose  glowing  depths 
His  utterance  came ;  while  yet  He  taught  them  as  One 
TJiat  had  authority,  and  not  as  the  Scribes  (St.  Matt.  vii. 
29).  Yet  was  it  He  Who,  in  their  long  past  history  as 
a  Nation,  in  His  love  and  in  His  pity,  had  redeemed 
them  (Isa.  Ixiii.  9),  Who  had  led  them  forth  like  sheep, 


v.]    C-^y^'/srs  Sacerdotal  Function  under  the  Law.  241 

and  carried  them  in  the  ivilderness  like  a  jioch  {Psalm 
Ixxviii.  52).  It  was  He  Who  through  their  long  day 
of  grace  in  time  of  old  had  stretched  forth  His  hands  in 
varied  longsiiffering  appeal,  though  it  were  to  a  diso- 
bedient and  gainsaying  jpeoj^le  {Isa.  Ixv.  2) ;  as  once  again 
He  was  to  stretch  them  forth  all  the  day  long  upon  the 
Cross  of  shame.  It  was  He  from  Whom,  as  He  sat 
enthroned  in  His  Divine  Boyalty,  Isaiah  received  His 
prophetic  commission.  It  was  He  of  Whom  the  vision 
was  vouchsafed  to  Ezekiel  also,  to  Daniel,  and  to 
Zechariah.  It  w^as  He  Wlio  could  say,  Before  Abraham 
teas  I  AM.    (St.  John  viii.  58.) 

116.  The  earthly  exhibition  of  the  Sacerdotal 
Function  of  the  Mediator  received  in  the  Ancient 
Church  its  most  specific  development  under  the  Mosaic 
Law.  Up  to  that  time  the  original  connection  of 
Priesthood  with  Primogeniture  had  prevailed.  Sacer- 
dotal duties,  and  indeed  prophetic  also,  had  been  exer- 
cised by  the  Heads  of  Families  \  and  in  connection  with 
the  general  governing  powers  which  belonged  to  them 
in  Patriarchal  days  and  in  a  simpler  and  less  developed 
society. 

^  The  Elders  of  Israel ;  see  Exod.  iii.  i6  ;  iv.  29  ;  xviii.  12  ;  xix.  7, 
They  are  spoken  of  in  Exod.  xix.  2  2  as  the  jjriests  which  came  near  to 
the  Lord.  In  the  very  remarkable  account  of  the  Covenant  Sacrifice 
in  Exod.  xxiv.  there  is  mention  made,  as  of  an  almost  official  class,  of 
the  young  men  (*?y^,  Lxx.  tovs  veaviaKovs)  of  IIm  children  of  Israel,  as 
offering,  i.e.  doing  the  actual  work  of,  the  sacrifices  by  command  of 
Moses.  These  would  seem  to  have  corresponded  to  the  Levites  of  the 
later  hierarchy,  and  were  probably  the  eldest  sons  of  still  living  fixthers. 
Compare  the  01  vccorepot  and  01  vtaviaKoi  of  the  narrative  of  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  {Actsx). 

B 


242  Development  of  the  Sacrificial  [lect. 

The  time  came,  in  connection  with  the  numerical 
growth  of  the  people,  with  their  deliverance  from  serf- 
dom, and  their  constitution  into  a  free  Nation,  when  a 
more  highly  organized  system  was  needed,  involving 
the  separation  and  the  thenceforward  distinct  exercise 
of  functions,  religious  and  civil,  which  had  previously 
been  united.  This  new  and  special  official  hierarchy 
was  instituted  by  Moses,  who,  as  the  mediator  appointed 
by  the  special  call  of  God  at  the  Burning  Bush,  himself 
exercised  supreme  authority  in  both  departments.  He 
first,  by  Divine  direction,  set  apart  his  eldest  brother 
Aaron  and  his  family,  and  afterwards  the  whole  tribe 
of  Levi,  for  the  exclusive  performance  of  priestly  duties; 
and  it  is  expressly  stated  that  God  took  the  Levites  to 
be  especially  His  own  instead  of  all  the  frsiborn  among 
the  children  of  Israel  [Numbers  iii.  5-13,  and  40-51  ; 
viii.  5,  &c.  ;  and  xviii.  6). 

117.  This  change  was  accompanied  by  a  large  further 
development,  under  special  divine  direction,  of  the  sa- 
crificial system  ;  and  by  the  institution  of  other  marked 
rites  and  ceremonies  of  religious  worship.  But  all  had 
one  great  object  in  view,  namely,  to  deepen,  in  the 
mind  and  conscience  of  the  worshippers,  the  sense  of 
sin  and  of  the  awful  justice  and  holiness  of  God,  of 
the  barrier  placed  by  sin  between  Man  and  God,  and 
of  the  consequent  need  of  Atonement,  and  that  by 
blood.  By  the  Law  was  to  be  the  knoivledge  of  sin 
{Bo7n.  iii.  20).  By  the  commandment  sin  was  to  be 
seen  to  be  exceeding  sinful  (vii.  13).  The  impossibility 
of  drawing  near  to  a  holy  God  without  the  intervention 
of  an  ordained,  and  so  acceptable,  sacrifice  of  atone- 


v.]  System  in  the  Mosaic  Covenant.  243 

ment,  the  principle  that  ivithout  shedding  ofhlood  there 
is  no  remission  (Heh.  ix.  22) — these  were  to  be  deeply  and 
lastingly  imprinted  in  the  conscience  of  the  Jewish  Race, 
and,  through  them,  on  that  of  mankind;  in  order  that  so 
the  necessaiy  moral  foundation  might  be  laid,  in  the  inner 
conviction  of  sin,  and  in  the  sense  of  guiltiness  before 
God  {Rom.  iii.  19),  for  the  joyful  acceptance  of  the 
Gospel  of  salvation — i.e.  of  forgiveness  and  justification 
through  faith  in  the  hlood  of  Christ  (25).  To  this  great 
object  tended  the  special  institutions  of  the  Sin-Offer- 
ing,  as  an  addition  to  the  primitive  Whole-burnt- 
Ofiering  and  Peace-Ofifering ;  of  the  Tabernacle,  with 
its  Holy  of  Holies  unapproachable  save  by  the  High- 
Priest  alone ;  of  the  peculiar  and  significant  Ritual  of 
the  Great  Day  of  Atonement;  and  of  the  constant 
daily  morning  and  evening  sacrifice.  All  spoke,  in 
striking  and  varied  ways,  of  One  Who  was  to  come ; 
of  One  Who  should  be  at  once  *  Himself  the  Victim  and 
Himself  the  Priest,'  at  once  The  Lamb  of  God,  without 
hlemish  and  tvithout  S'pot,  and  the  one  true  and  only  and 
abiding  Priest,  the  true  Aaron  and  the  true  Melchize- 
dek,  in  Whose  One  Offering  of  Himself,  made  once  for 
all,  '  single  and  complete,'  this  whole  elaborate  and 
complicated,  this  burdensome,  yet  highly  significant 
and  expressive,  system  should  be  completely  fulfilled 
and  realized ;  its  whole  substance  and  essential  purpose 
absolutely  secured  for  ever ;  so  completely,  so  abso- 
lutely, as  to  render  its  longer  actual  continuance  fii"st 
needless  and  then  mischievous;  while  the  standing 
record  of  its  divinely-ordained,  though  only  temporary, 
provisions,  was  still  preserved  in  the  inspired  volume 

R  2 


244  ^^''^  underneath  it  lay  the  earlier         [lect. 

of  the  Pentateuch,  to  teach  the  abiding  principles  which 
underlay  them,  and  to  point  for  ever,  as  the  Christian 
student  sees  it  to  point,  to  Hira  Who  is  the  sum  and 
substance  of  them  all;  and  so  to  throw  a  most  instruc- 
tive and  always  needed  light  on  the  whole  redemptive 
work  of  the  Christ,  in  principle  and  in  detail,  and  so  on 
the  divinely-ordained  constitution  and  usages  of  the 
Catholic  Church. 

It  was  a  great  system  of  human  mediation ;  sanc- 
tioned and  appointed  by  God  Himself,  yet  actually 
administered  by  earthly  agents.  But  it  Avas,  as  a 
whole,  like  the  Tabernacle,  or  Temple,  which  was  its 
visible  centre,  a  gigantic  Parcible  (Heh.  ix.  9),  looking 
forward  to,  all  along,  and  lasting  u^  to  {eii)  the  time  noiv 
present,  the  Christian  Dispensation.  It  was  a  parable 
whereby  the  Holy  Ghost  was  ever  this  signifying,  to  all 
who  had  spiritual  apprehension  to  perceive  it,  that  such 
a  system  was  necessarily  only  provisional,  because,  in 
itself,  essentially  incomplete  and  ineffectual,  wholly 
unable  to  make  him  that  did  the  service  jperfect  as  per- 
taining to  the  conscience,  and  so  necessarily  destined  to 
lead  up  to,  and,  having  led  up  to,  to  pass  away  before, 
the  Perfect  Work  of  Keconciliation  and  Atonement 
which  should  be  wrought  once  for  all  by  Him  to  Whom 
it  pointed. 

118.  But  it  must  be  carefully  remembered  that 
underneath  the  Legal  System  inaugurated  at  Sinai 
there  lay  throughout,  not  superseded  nor  disannulled 
by  its  parenthetical  character  and  temporary  purpose, 
the  knowledge  of,  and  the  faith  in,  that  earlier  Gospel 
of  Justification  by  Faith,  and  consequent  peace  w4th  God 


v.]  Gospel  of  Jusiijication  by  faith,  245 

and  po-sver  to  walk  with  God,  which  had  been  iweaclied 
before  to  Abraham  in  days  of  old  [Gal.  iii,  8);  and  of  which 
the  record  remained  in  the  oldest  traditions  of  the  race 
and  in  their  earliest  Scriptures.  '  The  Church,'  writes 
Bishop  Moberly  of  Salisbury,  'believed  in  Christ  and 
was  accepted  in  the  Beloved  ages  before  He  was  born 
in  Bethlehem  ^'  It  was  through  a  simple  faith  in  that 
everlasting  Gospel,  then  a  forward-looking  faith  in  Him 
That  was  to  come,  as  it  is  now  an  upward-looking  faith 
in  Him  Who  has  come,  that  the  Legal  System  had 
whatever  justifying  power  it  had  ;  whatever  ability  to 
bring  any  peace  to  the  sin-stricken  conscience.  But, 
joined  with  this  gospel  faith,  the  pious  observance  of 
the  Mosaic  Law,  in  humble  loyalty  to  the  God  of  Israel, 
did  evidently  bring  peace  to  the  conscience,  and  ensured 
acceptance  with  God,  and  the  grace  which  could  enable 
men  and  women  to  live  a  holy  life  well-pleasing  to 
Him ;  until  the  race  should  bloom  at  last  into  the 
spiritual  grace  and  beauty  of  her  whom  all  generations 
call  blessed,  the  precious  flower  of  royal  David's  line, 
the  Lily  of  Nazareth,  the  Mother  of  God. 

Canon  Barry  writes,  '  Our  Ijord  is  declared  (see 
I  Pei.i.  20)  "to  have  been  fore-ordained"  as  a  sacrifice 
"  before  the  foundation  of  the  world."  .  .  .  The  material 
sacrifices  represented  this  Great  Atonement,  as  already 
made  and  accepted  in  God^s  foreknowledge,  and  to  those 
who  grasped  the  ideas  of  sin,  pardon,  and  self-dedication, 
symbolized  in  them,  they  were  means  of  entering  into 
the  blessings  which  the  One  True  Sacrifice  alone  procured. 
The  whole  of  the  Mosaic  description  of  sacrifices  clearly 

^  Great  Forty  Days,  Appendix,  TJiird  Edition,  p.  285. 


246     and  grace  through  the  Unseen  Mediator,  [lect. 

implies   some  real  spiritual  benefit  to  be   derived  from 
them.'     (Article  '  Sacrifice/  in  Smiili's  Bible  Dictionary^ 

1 1 9.  And  as  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  whatever 
knowledge  of  spiritual  truth  came  to  the  saints  of  the 
older  covenants  came  to  them  through  the  Son  of  God, 
the  One  Eevealer  to  Man,  in  whatever  condition,  of  the 
things  of  God  ;  so  neither  can  it  be  doubted  that  what- 
ever spiritual  grace,  whether  of  forgiveness  or  of  sanc- 
tification,  was  vouchsafed  to  them — and  the  high  level 
of  possible  spiritual  attainment  may  be  estimated  by 
the  examples  of  Elijah  and  Daniel  and  the  Baptist,  not 
to  speak  of  Mary — was  so  vouchsafed  through  the  secret 
action  of  the  One  Mediator  through  Whom  alone  all 
good  things  are  given  by  God  to  Man.  Even  under  the 
old  Covenants,  notwithstanding  their  immeasurable  in- 
feriority to  the  New,  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  whatever  dif- 
ferent manner  or  measure,  was  truly  given,  as  souls  were 
able  to  receive  Him.  This  is  clearly  witnessed  to  by 
Holy  Scripture,  as,  for  example,  in  David's  great  peni- 
tential prayer  {Ps.  li.  11,  12).  It  lies  also  in  St. 
Stephen's  declaration,  to  the  worldly  and  unbelieving 
Church-Rulers  of  his  day,  that  the  resistance  of  them- 
selves and  their  predecessors  to  the  light  and  grace  and 
purpose  of  the  system  of  which  they  were  the  official 
administrators,  and  their  characteristic  ill-treatment  of 
the  truest  representatives  of  its  real  spirit,  was  a 
resistance  to  tJie  Holy  Ghost  that  arose  from  unconverted 
hearts  {Ads  vii.  51). 

120.  So  again,  whatever  acceptance  accrued  to  the 
worship  and  service,  national  or  individual,  of  the  Old 
Covenant,  whatever  degree  it  afforded  of  real  communion 


v.]     Levitical  worship  a  shadow  of  the  Heavenly.  247 

mtli  God,  was  due,  as  it  could  only  have  been  due,  to 
the  unseen  action  of  the  One  true  and  only  Priest, 
Whose  Priestly  Function,  in  the  making  an  effectual 
Atonement,  in  the  acceptable  presentation  of  Worship, 
in  an  all-prevailing  Intercession,  it  was  the  one  glory, 
as  it  was  the  underlying  purpose,  of  the  Mosaic  Ritual 
to  prefigure  and  to  set  forth. 

In  regard  to  this  point  due  weight  must  be  given  to 
the  emphatic  and  repeated  declaration  that,  in  every 
particular,  the  Levitical  system,  the  Tabernacle,  its 
arrangements,  its  ritual,  were  the  earthly  copies  of  a 
heavenly  pattern  and  original,  revealed,  first,  to  Moses 
in  the  Mount  {Exod.  xxv.  9  and  40 ;  xxvi.  30 ;  Ntim. 
viii.  4  ;  Acts  vii.  44  ;  Heh.  viii.  5),  and  again,  by  special 
inspiration,  to  David  when  he  was  preparing  the  plans 
for  the  Temple  on  Moriah  (i  Chron.  xxviii.  12,  19). 
Above  it  all  (so  to  speak)  and  behind  and  through  it 
all,  the  eye  of  faith  can,  now  at  any  rate,  discern  a 
heavenly  reality  then  existing,  yet  kept  in  the  back- 
ground until  the  actual  Incarnation  and  the  completed 
work  on  earth  of  Christ  as  the  real  Minister  of  the 
Sanctuary,  and  of  the  trne  Tabernacle  tvhich  the  Lord 
pitched,  and  not  man  {Heh.  viii.  2),  should  render  its  full 
disclosure  possible,  and  inaugurate  a  spiritual  w^orship 
— the  worship  of  the  Catholic  Church — which,  though 
still  necessarily  under  earthly  conditions,  is  yet,  in  inner 
spiritual  reality  and  power,  and  as  apprehended  by 
Christian  faith,  truly  and  absolutely  one  with  the 
present  worship  of  Heaven.  Meantime,  and  until, 
through  the  Life  and  Death,  through  the  Resurrection 
and  Ascension,  of  the  Incarnate   Son,  men   could  be 


248      Meaning  of  the  Partaking  of  sacrifices,    [lect, 

admitted,  through  the  Rent  Veil,  to  the  united  worship 
of  the  one  Family  in  heaven  and  earth  {Eph.  iii.  15), 
the  Levitical  High-Priest  and  the  Levitical  system 
nerved  unto  the  copy  and  shadoiv  (Heh.  viii.  5),  in  dim 
paraboHc  representation,  of  the  sublime  reaHties  of  the 
Heavenly  Sanctuary.  They  faintly  pictured,  under 
earthly  conditions,  the  invisible  action  of  Him  Who 
wsis  foreknown  indeed  before  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
hut  was  manifested  at  the  end  of  the  times  (i  Pet  i.  20), 
Who,  in  purpose,  to  be  outwardly  and  visibly  realized 
and  exhibited  in  due  season,  was  already  the  Lamh 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  ivorld  (Bev.  xiii.  8). 

121.  The  coiTespondence,  in  broad  fi'imd  facie 
unmistakable  principle,  and  even  in  detail,  between 
the  sacrificial  svstem  of  the  Mosaic  Law  and  the  work 
of  Christ  in  its  propitiatory  aspect,  is  so  well  under- 
stood that  it  is  needless  to  dwell  upon  it  further. 
More  necessary  is  it  to  insist  on  the  spiritual  meaning 
of  the  actual  participation,  by  eating  and  drinking,  of 
the  ancient  sacrifices,  as  setting  forth  a  connected  and 
important,  yet  now  less  sufficiently  and  generally  real- 
ized truth  ;  namely.  That  the  Eternal  Son  of  God  is, 
especially  as  sacrificed,  the  true  inward  sustenance  of 
the  essential  life  of  man ;  a  life  supported,  not  merely 
by  the  mental  contemplation,  however  devout  and 
believing,  of  Christ  and  of  His  work,  but  by  a  real, 
however  mysterious,  communication  and  assimilation, 
throughout  his  whole  being  in  body,  soul,  and  spirit, 
of  the  life  of  the  Second  Adam  as  a  Qiiichening  Spirit 
(i  Cor.  XV.  45). 

The  Primitive  Sacrifices  were   either  Whole    Burnt- 


v.]  Sin-Offering  aii  addition  to  Primitive  Sacrifice.   249 

Offerings,  expressive  of  the  complete  dedication  and 
consecration  of  the  ofTcrer  to  God,  or  else  Peace-Offer- 
ing's, of  which  part  was  offered  to  God  by  fire,  and  part 
eaten  by  the  worshipper.  The  Unbloody  Offering  of  Bread 
and  AVine  was  an  invariable  accompaniment  and  append- 
age of  both  forms  of  animal  sacrifice  ;  and  this  in  Gentile 
as  well  as  in  Jewish  usage.  Of  this,  in  like  manner,  one 
portion  was  offered  to  God,  and  the  other  partaken  of  by 
the  worshipper.  The  ideas  of  this  religious  eating  and 
drinking  were  those  of  peace  and  acceptance,  of  union 
and  communion  with  God,  manifested  by  the  worshippers 
being  received  as  guests  at  His  Table  (see  the  record, 
Exodus  xxiv,  of  the  Sacrifice  on  the  great  occasion  of  the 
Inauguration  of  the  Mosaic  Covenant)  ;  also  of  joyful 
thanksgiving  and  gratitude  for  this  privilege;  and, 
further,  of  the  mutual  love  and  peace  and  communion 
between  the  worshippers  themselves.  (See  Uxod.  xviii. 
12;   I  Cor.  X.  17.) 

The  special  Sin-Offering,  and,  with  it,  the  greater 
prominence  given  to  the  generally  expiatory  character 
which  necessarily  from  the  first  underlay  all  animal 
sacrifices,  belong  to  the  Levitical  system,  as  designed  to 
enforce  upon  the  conscience  the  conviction  of  sin  and  the 
need  of  atonement.  Once  instituted,  the  Sin-Offering 
took  precedence  of  the  Burnt-Offering,  the  Peace- Offer- 
ino-,  and  the  Meal-Offerin"-.  This  was  in  order  to  show 
the  necessity  of  expiation  before  there  could  be  accepted 
approach  to  God.  This  order  may  be  observed  in  the 
two  accounts  of  the  Consecration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons 
to  the  Priesthood  [Exod.  xxix.  and  Lei'it.  viii).  Of  the 
Sin-Offering  the  worshipper  did  not  partake  [Levit.  vi. 
30).  What  was  not  offered  upon  the  altar  was  consumed 
outside  the  camp.  But  in  the  completed  system  the  Offer- 
ings which  were  partaken  of,  i.  e.  the  Meal-Otfering  ac- 
companying the  Whole  Burnt-Offering,  the  flesh  of  the 
Peace-Offering  (see  LeviL  viii.  11  etc.),  and  the  INfeal- 
Offering    which    accompanied    the   Peace-Offering,    pre- 


250      Significance  of  the  'Perpetual  Passover'  [lect. 

supposed,  and  were  based  upon,  a  preceding  Sin-OfFering 
of  atonement.  The  Mcal-OfFerings  were  partaken  of  by 
the  priests  exclusively.  It  was  the  flesh  of  the  Peace- 
OfFering  which  was  partaken  of  in  common  by  the  priests 
and  the  offerers,  in  token  of  communion  with  each  other 
and  with  God. 

122.  But  by  far  the  most  remarkable  and  significant 
occasion  of  the  partaking  by  all  of  the  flesh  of  the  offered 
victim  was  that  of  the  annual  Passover.  This  was  an 
institution  unique  and  peculiar,  and  specially  ordained  by 
God  under  circumstances,  and  at  a  time,  which  were 
calculated  to  invest  it  for  ever  with  peculiar  solemnity. 
The  sacrificial  character  of  the  ordinance  cannot  really 
be  doubted  by  any  who  consider  the  pointedly  sacrificial 
use  of  the  blood  ;  which,  like  that  of  the  Sin-Offering, 
was  wholly  poured  out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  by  the 
priests.  Indeed  it  has  been  said  with  truth  '  to  embrace 
the  peculiarities  of  all  the  various  divisions  of  sacrifice^,' 
which  were  instituted  as  part  of  the  later  revelation  made 
to  Moses  at  Sinai. 

But  in  the  ease  of  the  Passover  the  flesh  of  the  lamb 
was  wholly  eaten  by  the  worshippers  ;  the  expiatory 
feature  being  solely,  though  most  pointedly,  supplied  by 
an  outpouring  of  the  blood.  '  The  whole  substance  of 
the  sacrificed  lamb  was  to  enter  into  the  substance  of 
the  people  ^.'  Their  acceptance  at  God's  Table  as  His 
children.  His  firstborn  [Exod.  iv.  22;  Heh.  xii.  23),  an 
acceptance  based  on  a  sufficient  atonement,  was  to  be 
marked  in  the  completest  way  possi  ble  ;  and  the  truth 
was  decisively  indicated  that  the  true  sustenance  of  the 
life  of  man  comes  to  him  from  communion  with  God. 
The  full  spiritual  meaning  of  what  is  here  typically 
expressed  is,  of  course,  apprehended  only  by  Christian 
faith.  The  Passover-lamb  was  the  most  marked  and 
special  type  of  the  Lamb  of  God  That  takefh  aioay  the  sin 

'  Canon  Barry,  Art.  Sacrifice  in  SmitJi's  Bible  Dictimiary. 
2  Canon  Cook,  in  Sj)eaker's  Commentary  on  Exod.  xii.  9. 


v.]       The  Unseen  Christ  fed  His  ancient  People,     251 

of  the  world ;  and  Who  suffered  exactly  at  the  moment 
when  the  Passover  lambs  were  sacrificed.  But  by  lift- 
ing up  the  accompanying  meal-offering  and  drink-offer- 
ing into  a  sublime  significance  and  power ;  by  perpetuating 
them,  while  all  other  forms  of  sacrifice  were  abolished, 
as  the  standing  memorial  of  His  Saving  Death  ;  He  had 
provided  a  means  whereby,  in  a  wholly  spiritual  and 
heavenly  mystery,  His  life-giving  Humanity  might  be 
wholly  communicated  to  His  faithful  people  as  the  true 
Bread  of  Life. 

123.  But  we  have  even  more  direct  Scriptural  ground 
for  believing  that,  in  some  true  sense,  though  not 
necessarily  by  them,  or  by  all  of  them,  understood  or 
apprehended,  Christ  was  Himself  the  Sustenance  of  His 
ancient  people.  St.  Paul,  in  his  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  drawing  a  parallel,  by  way  of  warning, 
between  the  circumstances  of  Christians  under  the  new 
Covenant  and  those  of  their  forefathers  under  the  old, 
points  out  the  typical  and  pai-abolical  character  of  the 
Church  in  the  Wilderness  on  its  way  to  the  Promised 
Land,  and  speaks  as  if  the  close  relation,  as  it  was  now 
perceived  to  have  been,  of  the  Son  of  God  to  the  Church 
of  old,  was  a  commonplace  among  the  Christian  teachers 
of  his  day.  He  finds  the  analogue  of  the  Christian 
Eucharist  in  the  miraculous  food  and  drink  which 
supported  the  Israelites  in  their  pilgrimage.  They  did 
all  eat  the  same  spiritual  meat  ;  and  did  all  drink  the  same 
spiritual  drinlc,  for  they  drank  of  that  spiritual  Bock 
that  followed  (or  accompanied)  them ;  hut  the  Bock  was 
Christ.  What  relation,  if  any,  St,  Paul's  words  may  have 
to  Jewish  traditions  supplementing  the  narrative  of  the 
Pentateuch  we  cannot  here  discuss.  We  need  look  only 
at  two  broad  statements  which  he  makes ;  first,  That 
the  supply  of  Manna  and  of  water  was  spiritual,  i.  e. 
miraculous  or  supernatural  ;  second,  That  the  true, 
though  unseen,  agent  of  the  supply  was  Christ.  The 
narrative  of  Moses   distinctly   states    that    the    supply 


252     as  part  of  His  ever-zvatchfid  care  of  them.    [lect. 

of  Manna  was  continuous ;  it  followed,  or  accompanied, 
them.  It  also  mentions  distinctly  two  occasions  (at 
Rc'pliidim,  Exod.  xvii,  in  close  connection  with  the  first 
mention  of  the  Manna,  and  at  Kadesh,  Nuinh.  xx)  on 
which  water  was  procured  by  striking-  the  Rock.  Whether 
there  were  other  occasions  of  special  need  of  water,  and,  if 
so,  how  that  need  was  met,  we  are  not  expressly  told ; 
though  we  mig-ht  infer,  perhaps,  with  the  fairest  proba- 
bility, that  it  would  be  by  striking-  the  Rock.  But 
the  watchful  ever-present  though  unseen  protection  of 
Christ  over  the  Church  in  the  wilderness  is  a  truth, 
at  any  rate,  that  lies  clearly  in  St.  Paul's  language  in 
this  place  ;  as  also  in  his  saying,  a  few  verses  later, 
Neither  let  tis  tempt  Christ,  (or,  tJie  Loed),  as  some  of 
them  tempted ;  implying  that  their  faithless  disobedient 
and  presumptuous  murmuring  and  complaining  were 
really  against  Christ, 

Certainly  I  cannot  believe  that  the  real  teaching  of 
such  passages  as  these,  and  of  the  Old  Testament  facts 
alluded  to  in  them,  is  exhausted  by  the  hypothesis  of  a 
merely  typical  prophetic  reference  to  Christ  and  His  work 
for  or  His  gracious  gifts  to  the  Christian  Church  ;  as  if 
He  as  well  as  they  were  as  yet  wholly  future ;  as  if  He 
had  not  then  a  real  existence  in  active,  though  hidden, 
relation  to  the  then  Dispensation  and  to  those  who  were 
His  People  under  that  Dispensation.  Neither  can  I  look 
with  patience  on  the  untold  loss  of  strength  to  the 
Christian  argument,  especially  with  Jewish  unbelief,  that 
•results  (as  I  cannot  help  thinking)  from  a  view  which, 
however  true  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  wholly  inadequate 
to  cover  the  whole  ground,  to  explain  all  the  facts  of  the 
Old  Testament  History,  or  to  lay  that  firm  and  broad 
foundation  which  Almighty  God,  in  His  earlier  Church, 
in  His  earlier  Scriptures,  and  in  the  ever-watchful  con- 
trol of  His  'never-failing  Providence'  in  History,  has 
really  laid,  for  those  stupendous  superstructures,  the 
Doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  of  the  Incarnation,  and  the 


v.]  The  Kingly  Sovereignty  of  Christ  253 

Institution  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  King-dom  of  God 
on  earth,  with  its  Divine-Human  Mediator  in  Heaven, 
operating  at  once  there  and  on  earth,  which  He  has  made 
one  with  Heaven,  and  supplying-  all  our  needs  through 
His  Sacraments  and  means  of  grace. 

124.  Tlie  third  special  aspect  under  which  we  have 
to  consider  the  manifold  operation  of  the  unseen  Me- 
diator under  the  elder  Dispensation  is  that  of  His 
Kingly  Sovereignty. 

It  has  always  been  the  characteristic  of  unregenerato 
human  nature  to  rebel  against  this  Royalty  of  Christ, 
and  to  chafe  under  His  stringent  rule  of  absolute  moral 
right,  het  lis  hreak  their  honds  asunder  and  cast  away 
their  cords  from  us  {Ps.  ii.  3).  This  has  been  due  to 
two  causes,  one  natural,  one  supernatural.  There  has 
been  a  natural  tendency  in  man  since  the  fall  to  rebel 
against  the  rule,  in  either  form  of  it,  secret  or  revealed, 
of  the  Mediator  King,  because  His  rule  is  necessarily 
one  of  absolute  holiness,  justice  and  goodness.  To  Him 
it  is  said  {Ps.  xlv.  7) : — 

Thy  Throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever, 

The  Sceptre  of  Thy  Kingdom  is  a  Sceptre  of  Equity, 

Tliou  lovest  righteousness  and  Jiatest  unckedness. 

Before  Him  'the  unruly  wills  and  affections  of  sinful 
men,'  whether  as  tending  to  sin  against  themselves  or 
against  other  men,  or  directly  against  Christ  and  Plis 
Throne,  must  be  controlled  and  put  down ;  and  His 
Law,  whether  of  Sinai  or  of  the  Galilaean  Mount,  de- 
mands an  absolute  submission  and  observance.  Against 
these  claims  unregenerate  human  nature  must  rebel. 
But  behind  this  obvious  cause  there  stands  in  the 
darkness  the  dread  form  of  the  Bival  King,  the  head 


2  54         opposed  by  the  rival  kingdom  of  evil,     [lect. 

of  another  and  a  hostile  kingdom,  the  Prince  of  Evil, 
Satan,  the  great  '  adversary '  of  all  good  ;  one  in  whose 
arms  tlie  ivliole  tvorld,  as  unredeemed  and  left  to  itself, 
lieth  ;  one  v^ho  could  say,  not  without  truth,  of  the 
power  and  glory  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  that 
they  are  his,  and  to  whomsoever  he  wills  he  gives  it,  on 
the  one  condition  of  worshipping  him.    With  him  there 
stand,  associated  under  his  sway,  mighty  spirits  of  evil, 
princijjalities  and  j^oivers,  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this 
world.     From  the  devil  and  his  angels  has  ever  pro- 
ceeded, in  the  first  instance,  as  from  its  original  source, 
all   conscious,    purposed,    organized   resistance    to   the 
Kingdom  and    Sovereignty  of  the  Son  of  God.     Be- 
tween it  and  them  there  must  be  implacable  hostility. 
And  they  are  mysteriously  permitted  to  entice  mankind 
from  their  true    allegiance,  and  to  use  them  as   the 
instruments    of  their   deadly   warfare    against   Christ 
and  His   Church,  in   their  hopeless  endeavour  to  de- 
throne Him  from  that  Royal  Lordship  which  is  His 
by  double  right,  of  Creation  and  of  Redemption ;  or  at 
least  to  hinder  the  progress  of  His  Kingdom,  and  to 
retard  its  beneficent  action  among  mankind.     The  cor- 
rupting influences  of  human  sin,  in  its  various  forms  of 
pride,  ambition,  selfishness,  sensuality,  covetousness,  on 
human  life  and  institutions,  domestic,  social,  political, 
bring  them   down,  even  among  professedly  Christian 
nations,  to  so  low  a  moral  and  spiritual  condition  that 
they  may  be  only  too  easily  wielded  by  the  devices  of 
the   great  statesmen  of  the  kingdom  of  evil   against 
the  Kingdom  and  the  Throne  of  Christ,  and  as  means 
towards  the  ultimate  accomplishment — an  accomplish- 


v.]  throitghout  htimaii  history.  255 

ment  which  will  we  know  be  permitted  to  be  realized 
for  a  brief  period  at  the  close  of  the  present  Dispen- 
sation—  of  what  has  been  evidently  their  ceaseless 
endeavour  all  along,  from  Babel  onwards,  namely,  to 
bring  all  the  glory,  and  especially  all  the  power  and 
force,  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  into  one  hand, 
under  one  sole  master  of  a  vast  world-empire,  who 
shall  be  the  willing  tool  and  vicegerent  of  the  unseen 
Evil  One,  who,  in  and  through  him  as  the  final  Anti- 
clirist,  shall  receive,  what  he  has  ever  lusted  after,  the 
worship  of  mankind,  stamping  out  in  blood  and  fire 
every  known  upholder  of  the  rights  of  Christ  and  of 
His  Church  ac-ainst  his  unrio^hteous  rule. 

125.  The  careful  student  of  the  history  of  mankind 
traces  the  course  of  this  prolonged  strife,  the  one  great 
inclusive  question  at  issue  in  the  world's  probation ; 
and  sees  in  it  the  real  key  to  human  history.  M\lvov, 
aiKivov,  eiire,  to  S'  ev  vikcltci)  ('  Sing  a  dirge,  a  dirge  of 
sorrow ;  yet  let  the  good  prevail : '  Aeschylus,  Aga- 
memnon, 159),  is  his  reflection  and  his  prayer,  as  he 
ponders  over  the  mingled  misery  and  glory  of  its 
efiects  in  the  past ;  the  misery  of  the  sin  and  suffering, 
the  hindrance  and  delay  of  God's  purposes,  resulting 
from  the  temporary  victories  of  evil ;  the  moral  glory 
and  grandeur  of  all  faithful  witness  to  that  which  was 
good  and  true  and  right ;  the  joy  of  the  ultimate 
successes  won  by  patient  endurance  through  the  birth- 
throes  which  have  lifted  the  world  to  each  higher  level 
of  moral  and  spiritual  light  and  life,  and  helped  it 
forward  on  the  path  of  the  only  true  progress. 

In  elder  days,  in  the  infancy  and  childhood  of  the 


256  The  conflict  renewed  after  the  Flood,      [lect. 

human  race,  the  Eeign  and  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  and 
the  rival  reign  and  kingdom  of  Satan  were  both  in  the 
background  and  unseen.  They  strove  together  in  the 
arena  of  human  life  and  history,  themselves  as  yet 
undisclosed. 

In  the  Antediluvian  World  evil  was  in  the  end 
triumphant ;  until  the  One  Mediator,  Who  is  also  the 
Judge,  came  in  predicted  judgment  and  swept  it  away 
in  the  Visitation  of  the  Flood.  His  Kingdom  was 
reduced  to  a  single  family.  It  was  cad  doivn,  hut  not 
destroyed.  The  hopes  of  the  world  and  the  promise  of 
Eedemption  were  carried  over  in  the  Ark,  above  the 
destroying  waters  of  the  deluge  wherein  the  old  world 
perished,  to  a  fresh  beginning,  under  covenant  and 
promise,  in  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth. 

But  again  the  old  struggle  broke  out  afresh ;  for  the 
evil  one  had  still  his  foothold  in  the  world,  in  the  sinful 
nature  of  man.  The  next  climax  was  Babel ;  the  next 
catastrophe  the  Confusion  of  tongues,  and  the  dis- 
persion of  the  earliest  would-be  founders  of  a  secular 
world-empire. 

Still  there  was  as  yet  no  visible  distinction  between 
the  Church  and  the  World.  The  forces  that  strove 
together  in  the  world  of  man  were  not,  as  yet,  so  out- 
wardly pronounced  and  accentuated  as  to  be  gathered 
apart  into  opposing  camps.  For  it  is  the  normal,  and 
should  be  the  ultimate,  form  of  human  society,  that 
what  we  now  distinguish  as  Church  and  State  should 
be  one  ;  only  the  same  Society,  of  the  same  persons,  in 
different  aspects  ;  the  social  and  political  life  of  Man, 
and  the   powers   and   institutions  which  belong  more 


v.]  Primeval  religion  soon  corrupted.  257 

directly  to  that  life,  working  Larmoniously  with  his 
moral  and  spiritual  life  and  with  the  institutions  de- 
signed to  foster  his  progress  towards  the  highest  good ; 
and  both  operating  consciously  and  as  of  set  purpose, 
according  to  God's  known  and  revealed  Will,  on  the 
acknowledged  basis  of  an  authority  in  either  case 
equally  derived  from  Him.  Such  is  the  ideal.  On 
such  lines  human  history  began.  Some  approach  to 
its  realization,  in  a  simple  and  homely  and  rudimentary 
form,  was  possible  on  the  narrow  scale  and  amid  the 
simpler  arrangements  of  patriarchal  times.  But  the 
growth  of  populous  and  extended  empires,  the  gather- 
ing of  men  in  great  cities,  the  development  of  war,  and 
its  offspring,  the  slavery  of  captive  men  and  women, 
were  always  against  its  proper  and  continuous  evolution 
towards  perfection ;  for  they  all  worked  too  exclusively 
on  the  side  of  that  which,  under  whatever  brilliant  and 
seductive  exterior,  was  mostly  evil  in  its  effects  on  the 
moral  and  religious  life  of  all  those  who,  whether  as 
agents  and  promoters,  or  as  helpless  sufferers,  came 
within  their  influence.  Worship  began  to  take  idolatrous 
forms ;  and  the  old  primeval  religion  handed  on  by 
tradition  began  to  be  seriously  corrupted  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Polytheism  and  gross  superstition,  with  their 
inevitable  accompaniment  of  increasing  moral  de- 
basement. 

Martcnsen  says,  *  Among  the  various  attempts  to  give 
a  connected  picture  of  the  religious  systems  of  heathen- 
dom, those  of  Hegel  (in  his  philosophy  of  relig-ion)  and 
of  Schelling  (in  his  newer  system)  are  the  most  worthy 
of  note.    Without  entering  here  into  particulars,  we  must 


258  Hence  a  'ChurcJi  called  out  from  the  world,  [lect. 

explain  our  decided  preference  for  that  of  Sehelling-, 
because  he  has  endeavoured  to  draw  a  distinct  line  of 
demarcation  between  Mythology  and  Revelation,  between 
the  wild  and  the  noble  olive  tree  ;  whereas  Hegel  looks 
upon  all  religions  as  branches  of  one  and  the  same  stem, 
whose  top  and  crown  is  Christianity.  The  fact  that 
Hegel,  in  his  philosoj^hy  of  religion,  looks  upon  the 
Greek,  the  Jewish,  the  Roman  religions,  as  ramifications 
of  the  same  development,  clearly  shows  that  he  overlooked 
the  decided  divergence  of  the  history  of  religion  in  two 
separate  directions/     [Christian  Dogmatics,  §  120,) 

Hence  it  became  necessary,  if  a  witness  to  true  re- 
ligion was  to  be  preserved  among  mankind,  that  a 
'  Church  ^  should  be  created,  a  body  of  men  '  called 
out '  from  the  general  mass  of  mankind,  and  the  founda- 
tions laid  of  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven  upon  earth,  in  the 
world,  but  not  of  it.  For  earth,  as  such,  or  rather  the 
world  of  human  life  on  earth,  was  no  longer  part  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  since  its  forces  and  institutions 
had  been  so  largely  laid  hold  of  by  an  usurping  evil 
power  which  had  turned  them  against  their  own  true 
Founder  and  Lord.  Wherefore  the  One  Mediator,  the 
Eoyal  Son,  and  Heir  of  all  things,  secured  for  Himself, 
in  the  Call  of  His  faithful  servant  Abraham,  a  fresh 
footing  in  the  world  that  of  right  was  all  His  own. 
By  that  act  He  laid  the  foundations  of  a  Church  which 
should  be  His  special  and  avowed  Kingdom  ;  and  which, 
though  its  life  must  ever  be  that  of  a  beleaguered  fort- 
ress surrounded  by  hostile  invaders  \  should  be,  as  a 
city  set  on  an  hill  that  cannot  he   hid,  His  standing 

^  A  TTapefjL^oXrj,  see  Speaher^s  Commentary  on  Rev.  xx.  9. 


v.]  The  Theocratic  constitution  of  Israel         259 

visible  witness  in  the  world  which  is,  de  jure,  His  own, 
and  tlie  pledge  of  its  future  complete  re-conquest. 

That  Church  has  had  a  continuous,  however  che- 
quered, existence  ever  since.  The  Bible  and  Christian 
history  are  the  record  of  its  life  and  work  under  the 
guiding  hand  of  its  Founder  and  its  King,  its  Protector 
and  also  its  Judge. 

1 26.  The  creation  of  the  national  life  of  the  Israelites, 
after  their  deliverance  from  their  lengthened  bondage 
under  the  world-power  in  Egypt,  its  development  in 
connection  with  their  religious  mission  as  the  then 
Church  of  God  on  earth,  and  the  Theocratic  Con- 
stitution of  the  whole  under  God  manifesting  Himself 
in  His  Son  as  their  King,  w^as  (as  we  may  say)  an 
endeavour  to  revert  to  the  true  Ideal.  It  w^as  an 
endeavour  to  create,  on  a  scale  not  so  large  as  to 
endanger  its  success,  yet  in  a  locality  so  central  as  to 
make  it  widely  influential,  a  specimen  of  a  rightly 
ordered  human  polity  ;  which  should  secure,  in  the  form 
and  to  the  degree  then  attainable,  the  higher  ends  of 
human  life ;  and  should,  further,  serve  as  an  example 
to  the  world  of  man's  true  relation,  individually  and 
nationally,  to  God  and  to  the  world,  and,  in  their 
essential  principles  and  inner  spirit,  of  the  institutions 
best  adapted  to  maintain  men  and  nations  in  that 
relation. 

This  again  was  a  new  beginning  in  human  history; 
and  of  an  important  kind.  A  change  had  come  over 
the  religion  and  sjjirit  of  Egypt  since  Joseph's  time ; 
a  change  for  the  worse,  morally  and  religiously.  A 
comparatively  pure  religion  (for  a  devout  servant  of 

s  2 


26o      a  re-assertion  of  the  Divine  Royalty  of  [lect, 

God  like  Joseph  could  marry  the  daughter  of  one  of 
its  priests)  had  degenerated  into  an  idolatrous  super- 
stition, with  features,  at  least  in  its  exoteric  manifes- 
tations, of  the  grossest  kind.  Selfish  vaingloriousness 
and  covetousness  were  the  characteristics  of  the  rulers, 
who  gratified  themselves  at  the  cost  of  untold  misery 
to  the  people.  The  Church  of  God,  once  protected, 
was  oppressed.  But  a  day  at  once  of  deliverance  and 
of  judgment  came,  when  Tlie  Angel  of  the  Lord  ap- 
peared to  Moses  in  the  flame  of  fire  in  the  bush.  That 
Angel  was  (we  have  seen)  the  Lord  (Jehovah),  the 
Messenger  of  the  Lord  (Jehovah) ;  the  Same  Who  had 
appeared  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob ;  the  God 
of  their  fathers,  Who,  for  the  deliverance  of  His  Peo- 
ple, woidd  make  bare  His  holy  Arm  in  the  sight  of 
the  Nations.  His  message  by  His  specially -appointed 
earthly  ambassador  to  the  earthly  king,  who  had  made 
himself  but  an  instrument  of  Satan,  was  the  royal 
mandate  of  the  real  King  both  of  Israel  and  of  Egypt, 
Let  My  People  go,  that  they  may  serve  Me.  Warning 
was  given  on  refusal ;  and  gentler  preliminary  judg- 
ments inflicted  in  mercy  were  a  call  to,  and  an  op- 
portunity of,  repentance.  At  length,  after  reiterated 
appeal  in  vain,  when  the  blind  world-power  finally 
refused  in  its  unbelief  to  see  the  spiritual,  and  so 
invincible,  character  of  that  with  which  (or,  should 
we  not  rather  say  \  the  Divine  Omnipotence  of  Llim 
with  Whom)  it  was  contending,  the  hour,  of  deliverance 
for  the  one  and  judgment  for  the  other,  struck  on 
that  much  to  be  remembered  night  when,  at  midnight, 
there  arose  a  great  cry  throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt, 


v.]  the  Eternal  Son,   Who  judged  Egypt,         261 

for  tliere  ivas  not  a  house  wliere  there  was  not  one  dead : 
and  a  few  days  later  the  decisive  blow  was  dealt,  when, 
as  for  Fharaoh  and  his  host,  He  overwhelmed  them  in 
the  Bed  Sea.  That  was  a  Bay  of  Judgment  for  the 
land  of  Egypt,  the  world  of  that  day ;  and  the  Judge 
was  He  to  Whom  the  Father  hath  committed  all  judg- 
ment, even  His  Eternal  Son, 

'  The  Mediator  in  His  wrath 
Descending  down  the  lightning's  path,' 

(Christian  Year,  Easter  F), 

for  the  discomfiture  of  the  enemies  of  His  people,  whose 
affliction  He  had  seen,  and  whom  He  came  down,  in 
His  love  and  in  His  jtity,  to  deliver.  Then  tlie  re- 
joicing Leader  and  the  ransomed  Nation  sang  their 
grateful  praise  in  one  of  the  most  glorious  bursts  of 
inspired  poetry:  — 

In  the  greatness  of  Thy  Majesty 

Thou  hast  overthrown  tJiem  that  rose  up  against  Thee. 
****** 

Thou  in  Thy  Mercy  hast  led  forth  the  People  whom  Thou  hast 

redeemed, 
Thou  hast  guided  them  in  Thy  strength  imto  Thy  Jioly  habitation. 

****** 

Thou  wilt  bring  them  in  and  2>i(int  them 

In  the  mountain  of  Thine  inheritance, 

The  2)lace,  0  Lord,  which  Thou  hast  made  for  Thee  to  dwell  in, 

TJie  Sanctuary,  0  Lord,  which  Thy  hands  have  established. 

The  Lord  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.  {Exodus  xv.) 

In  all  this  we  see  a  typical  and  exemplary  instance  of 
the  mingled  exercise  of  mercy  and  judgment  by  the 
One  Mediator  in  His  character  and  function  of  the 
Ilighteous  Judge  and  King. 


262  and  Amalek,  and  Canaan.  [lect. 

127.  A  lesser  instance  followed  quickly,  Avhen  Moses, 
with  his  hands  upheld  by  Aaron  and  Hur  on  the  hill 
a,bove,  represented  the  unseen  Interceding  Power,  and 
Joshua  below,  re2:)resenting  the  unseen  Royal  and 
Judicial  Powder,  fought  with  Amalek,  and  discomjited 
Mm  and  his  j)eoj)le  with  the  edge  of  the  sivord.  And  the 
LoED  said  unto  Moses,  Write  this  for  a  memorial  in  a 
hook,  and  rehearse  it  in  the  ears  of  Joshua ;  for  I  ivill 
utterly  ^ut  out  the  rememhrance  of  Amaleh  from  under 
heaven.  Why  ?  Because  the  hand  of  Amalek  is  against 
the  throne  of  the  Lcrb,  the  Lobb  ivill  have  war  with 
Amalek  from  generation  to  generation.  (See  Exodus 
xvii.  8-16.  The  correct  translation  of  ver.  16  is  that 
in  the  margin.     See  Sjpeakers  Commentary.) 

128.  But  this,  significant  as  it  was,  was  but  the 
foreshadowing  of  the  greater  work  entrusted  to  Joshua 
a  few  years  later  in  God's  tremendous  Visitation  of 
Judgment  against  the  Seven  wicked  Nations  of  Canaan, 
whose  iniquity,  at  length,  was  full.  This  event  is 
especially  to  be  regarded  as  a  solemn  judicial  Act  of 
God,  a  Day  of  Judgment  and  of  vengeance  on  out- 
rasfeous  wickedness,  like  the  Visitation  of  the  Flood, 
or  that  on  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  Effected  by  the 
instrumentality  of  the  Israelites,  it  was  the  solemn 
act  of  the  Unseen  King,  the  righteous  Judge,  strong 
and  patient,  Who,  though  too  often  ignored  and  unac- 
knowledged, even  by  Christian  Nations,  yet  throughout 
human  history  ever  standeth  before  the  door  {St.  James 
V.  9).  It  is  one  great  function  of  the  divinely-recorded 
history  of  the  People  of  Israel  to  exhibit  in  operation, 
now  on  themselves,  now  among  Heathen  Nations,  as  it 


v.]     God  the  Son  especially  Uke  God  of  Israel;'  263 

is  one  great  function  of  Hebrew  Prophecy,  like  the 
song  of  a  bystanding  Chorus,  to  draw  attention  to, 
the  Divine  Administration  and  Government  of  human 
atfairs,  and  the  consequent  sure  vindication,  in  the 
long  run,  of  the  essential  and  eternal  distinction  be- 
tween right  and  wrong,  the  consequent  sure  witness 
borne  to  the  truths  that,  over  al],  the  Unseen  Lord 
is  King,  and  that  it  is  only  righteousness  (that  is, 
allegiance  to  Him  and  to  His  broad  Moral  Law),  that 
permanently  exaltetli  a  nation. 

129.  God,  as  revealed  in  the  Person  of  the  Son,  was 
in  an  especial  manner  '  The  God  of  Israel.'  The 
markedly  Theocratic  character  of  the  Mosaic  Legis- 
lation, in  its  original  idea,  left  no  place  for  a  visible 
or  human  king.  It  regarded  the  institution  of  an 
earthly  monarch,  even  though  understood  to  be  but 
the  visible  representative,  the  earthly  vicegerent,  of 
Jehovah,  as  a  deflection  from  the  perfect  original 
ideal ;  a  condescension  to  human  infirmity,  and  to 
an  earthliness  of  aims,  which  was  sure  to  draw  mis- 
chief after  it,  though  it  might  be  controlled  and 
overruled  for  good. 

In  truth  the  Lord  was  their  King,  ever-present, 
though  invisible  ;  His  Presence  was  visibly  and  locally 
symbolised  by  the  Cloudy  Fiery  Pillar  that  rested 
over  the  Tabernacle,  which  was  His  Palace,  His 
dwelling-place  among  them.  The  Mercy-Seat,  placed 
upon  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  within  the  Holy  of 
Holies,  was  His  Poyal  Throne,  where  He  visibly 
dwelt,  during  the  period  of  the  first  Temple,  in  the 
Shekinah,  the  cloud  of  glory,  between  the  Cherubim. 


264  and  their  King ;  seen  by  Isaiah,         [lect. 

There  the  great  Gospel  Prophet  saw  Him,  the  Lord 
{Adonay)  sitting  u^on  a  throne  high  and  lifted  u]) ; 
and  his  train  filed  the  temple.  Above  it  stood  sera- 
phim .  .  .  And  one  cried  unto  another  and  said,  Holy, 
Holy,  Holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts !  .  .  .  Then  said  I, 
Woe  unto  me,  for  I  am  undone  .  .  .for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  the  King,  the  Loed  of  hosts.  (Isaiah  vi.)  And 
from  the  King  Himself  Isaiah  received,  like  St.  Paul, 
His  direct  commission  as  His  ambassador,  His  Pro- 
phet. His  eyes  saw  Him  whom  the  Elders  of  the 
Chosen  Hace,  in  the  first  generation  of  their  national 
history,  saw  with  Moses  and  Aaron,  when  they  saio  the 
God  of  Israel,  on  the  great  occasion  of  the  Covenant- 
Sacrifice.  {Exodus  xxiv.)  But  He  whom  they  and 
Isaiah  saw  was  not  the  Father,  nor  the  Holy  Trinity, 
Whom  no  man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see ;  though  the 
threefold  Sanctus  bears  witness  to  the  then,  as  every- 
where and  always,  equal  and  indivisible  presence  of 
the  Divine  Three.  Equally  jDresent  They  were ;  for 
They  are  inseparable  in  presence  as  in  operation ; 
yet  not  equally  sensibly  manifest  or  visible.  To  be 
so  manifested,  in  visible  form,  on  temporary  occasion 
as  of  old,  or  in  gracious  permanence  through  the 
Human  Nature,  which  He  took  for  ever  in  His  In- 
carnation, is  the  unique  and  special  condescension  of 
the  Son,  the  One  Mediator ;  and  for  the  purposes  of 
His  Mediation,  as  the  Divine  Agent  of  God's  purposes 
amongst  mankind.  Him  Isaiah  saw,  as  the  beloved 
disciple  witnesses.  (St.  John  xii.  41.)  He  saio  His 
glory  (His  who  afterwards  became  our  Jesus),  and  He 
sjpahe  of  Him.     Him  he  saw  ;   and  doubtless  in  human 


v.]         luor shipped  by,  riding,  and  protccti^ig  265 

form,    however    overwhelmingly    majestic     and    sub- 
lime. 

Him  the  Seraphim  worshipped ;  and  to  Him,  thus 
mysteriously  enthroned  amongst  them,  with,  as  we 
Christians  know,  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  One  wdth 
Him,  as  He  with  Them,  w^as  the  loyalty  of  the  re- 
deemed Nation  exclusively  due ;  to  Him  the  God 
of  Israel,  their  King,  their  Protector,  when  they  were 
faithful  and  obedient,  their  Judge  when  they  rebelled 
and  disobeyed,  and  gave  His  honour  to  them  that  were 
no  gods.  To  Him  went  up  the  daily  tribute  of  offered 
sacrifice  and  incense  and  of  vocal  praise,  in  a  divinely- 
appointed  elaborate  and  costly  worship,  through  the 
hands  of  an  appointed  Priesthood  who  were  the  officers 
of  His  Court.  From  Him,  through  the  instrumentality 
of  His  appointed  ambassadors  the  Prophets,  from  Moses 
and  Samuel  onwards,  came  the  authorized  and  unap- 
pealable teaching  of  either  the  Written  Code  as  given 
at  Sinai,  or  the  inspired  word  of  the  living  Prophet, 
saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord.  And  this  sufficed  for 
the  normal  and  regular  life  of  the  Jewish  People,  as 
Church  and  Nation,  both  in  one.  From  Him  also,  as 
occasion  was,  came  the  stirring  summons  to  a  Moses, 
or  a  Joshua,  a  Gideon,  a  Barak,  to  stand  forth,  as  the 
heaven-sent  leader  and  commander  of  the  People,  in 
their  warfare  against  their  enemies.  From  Him  came 
also  the  victory  that  was  granted  them,  often  through, 
apparently,  wholly  inadequate  means.  But  this  ruling 
and  military  action  was  not  provided  for  by  any 
standing  institution  or  order  of  men  resting  on  a 
basis  of  original  divine  appointment,  like  the  Priestly 


2  66         tJie  Chosen  People;  and  visiting  them     [lect, 

and  Proplietic  orders  ;  and  so  far  as  it,  quite  naturally, 
arose  after  and  out  of  the  institution  of  the  Monarchy, 
it  was  condemned ;  especially  as  involving  anything 
like  a  standing  army.  This,  because  War  was  not,  in 
any  of  its  forms,  the  business  of  God's  People.  The 
Conquest  under  Joshua  was  wholly  exceptional ;  wholly 
indefensible,  except  as  resting  on  the  express  and  un- 
doubted command  of  Him  Who  vised  the  sword  of 
Joshua  as  His  instrument  of  judgment  against  the 
Wicked  Nations.  While  defensive  wars,  or  wars  of 
deliverance  from  oppression,  were  only  the  result  of 
their  national  unfaithfulness  and  their  deflection  from 
the  divinely-given  ideal.  Had  they  as  a  nation  stead- 
fastly soiiglit  first  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  its  rigliteous- 
ness,  they  had  been  exempt  from  these  cliastisements ; 
which  yet  were  in  mercy,  the  greatest  mercy  possible 
under  the  circumstances  which  their  wilfulness  and 
disobedience  had  created  for  themselves. 

130.  Under  the  Judges  and  under  the  Monarchy, 
before  the  Disruption,  and,  after  it,  in  the  separate 
careers  of  Judah  and  Israel,  successive  examples  occur 
to  illustrate  the  controlling  Kule  of  the  unseen  King 
and  His  various  disciplinary  dealing  with  them,  in 
mercy  or  in  judgment,  according  as  the  nation  was 
faithful  to  its  high  vocation,  or  lapsed  and  failed  in  its 
allegiance  and  was  enticed  into  the  high  treason  of 
idolatry.  But  for  the  more  signal  instances  of  its 
exercise  we  naturally  look  to  the  catastrophes  in  either 
case ;  the  judicial  Visitations  which,  after  prolonged 
but,  alas,  useless  warning,  closed  the  history  of  the 
Ten  Tribes  in  a  sense,  and  as  a  nation,  for  ever,  of 


v.]  with  J2idgment  for  their  si?is  ;  267 

the  less  faithless  Judah  for  a  time.  These  events,  duly 
considered,  are  full  of  the  most  important  teaching  as 
to  the  principles  on  which  the  Mediator-King  deals 
with  His  earthly  Church  and  Kingdom,  whose  Lord 
and  Judce  He  is  as  well  as  her  Saviour  and  Eedeemer  \ 
For  He  is  Tlie  Loud,  the  Loud  God,  merciful  and  gra- 
cious, longsiiffering,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth; 
heejnng  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  trans- 
gression and  sin ;  and  that  ivill  hy  no  means  clear  the 
guilty ;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  ujpon  the  chil- 
dren, and  ujpon  the  children's  children,  unto  the  third  and, 
to  the  fourth  generation.  Such  was  the  solemn  declar- 
ation of  the  character  of  Him  Who  dealt  with  Israel, 
and  of  the  grand  principles  of  His  government  {Exod. 
xxxiv.  5,  where  see  S'peahers  Commentary). 

131.  The  first  downfall  of  Jerusalem  and  of  the 
Jewish  Church  beneath  the  Chaldaean  Empire  is  doubt- 
less to  be  regarded  as  a  true  Day  of  the  Lord,  a  true 
Comiiig  of  the  Lord  to  judgment.  Yet  even  in  the  crash 
of  that  terrible  Visitation,  the  faithful  remnant  were 
preserved ;  for  the  sake  of  future  hopes,  and  for  the 
sake  of  past  promises  on  which  those  hopes  were  based. 
For  they  are  the  promises  of  One  Who  cannot  fail ; 
they  are  the  word  of  One  Who  hath  sivorn  hy  Himself, 
and  Wliose  gifts  and  calling  are  therefore  aneraixeXr^Ta 
(not  repented  of,  or  subject  to  change  of  jnirpose  on 

'  '  TIic  Last  Judgment  must  be  regarded  not  as  an  isolated  act,  but 
as  the,  in  the  highest  sense,  natural,  result  of  all  that  precedes,  the 
crown  of  the  whole  of  that  judicial  activity  of  the  King  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  which  extends  throughout  all  history.'  Van  Oosterzee,  Christian 
Dogmatics,  cxlvii.  2. 


268    judging  also  their  enemies  and  oppressors,     [lect. 

His  part).  On  them  the  faithful  minority  could  rest : 
and,  as  represented  by  the  Prophet  Micah,  could  say 
(vii.  18-20), 

^Yllo  is  a  God  like  unto  Thee,   Tliat  2)ardoneth  iniquity, 

And  2>(isset7i  over  t/ie  transgression  of  the  remnant  of  His  heritage! 

He  retaineth  not  His  anger  for  ever,  because  He  delighteth  in  mercy. 

He  will  turn  again,  He  will  have  compassion  upon  us; 

He  will  subdue  our  iniquities; 

And  Thou  wilt  cast  all  their  sins  into  the  depth  of  the  sea. 

Thou  wilt  perform  the  truth  to  Jacob,  the  mercy  to  Abraham, 

Which  Thou  hast  sioorn  unto  our  Fathers  from  the  days  of  old. 

Closely,  and  very  instructively,  accompanying  the 
visitation  of  the  unfaithful  Church,  came  also  the  judg- 
ment on  the  tyrant  and  oppressive  world-power.  The 
same  Almighty  Hand,  as  it  had  already  crushed  Nine- 
veh, so,  using  Cyrus  and  his  Medes  and  Persians  as 
its  instrument,  it  swept  away  that  proud  Babylonian 
Empire  which,  under  Nebuchadnezzar,  had  been  itself 
the  agent  of  God's  chastisement  upon  the  backsliding 
Church  and  Nation.  The  nation  to  whom  they  shall  he 
in  hondage  ivill  I  judge,  said  God,  of  Egypt  the  oppres- 
sor of  Israel  of  old ;  and  the  same  was  true  now  of 
cruel  and  idolatrous  Babylon,  the  haughty  conqueror  of 
Jerusalem. 

132.  From  the  first,  the  temporary,  downfall,  capti- 
vity, and  dispersion,  our  thoughts  are  carried  instinc- 
tively onwards  to  that  greater  and  unparalleled  Catas- 
trophe of  which  it  was  but  the  typical  shadow  and 
forewarning ;  and  we  look  with  awe  on  that  Day  of 
Judgment  upon  the  Jewish  Church  and  Nation  when, 
after  their  decisive  rejection  of  their  King  in  His 
nearest  and  most  gracious  self-revelation  to  them,  the 


v.]  Grandeur  of  tJic  calling  of  Israel.  269 

Roman  armies  were  the  angels  of  His  wrath,  and  tlie 
eagles  gcdlitred  together  round  the  carcase. 

If  thou  hadst  knoivn,  at  least  in  that  thy  day — is  the 
reflection  tliat  rises  irresistibly  to  our  lips.  Had  they 
rightly  conceived  and  duly  laid  to  heart  their  high 
destiny,  their  unique  and  unparalleled  mission,  in  the 
centre  of  the  nations  of  the  earth,  on  the  great  high- 
way, between  East  and  West,  between  North  and  South, 
of  the  Ancient  World  ;  had  they  as  a  nation  realized, 
in  their  full  glory  and  blessedness,  the  singular  privi- 
lege of  their  special  nearness  to  God,  their  guaranteed 
prosperity,  in  the  highest  and  truest  sense,  under  His 
wing,  and  the  grandeur  of  the  work  which  He  had 
given  them  to  do  for  Him  and  for  Mankind  ;  they  had 
then,  in  the  first  place,  furnished  to  the  world  in  its 
secular,  its  natural,  aspect,  a  much  needed  example  of 
a  well-ordered  and  permanent  state,  with  the  best  secu- 
rities for  the  most  solid  earthly  happiness,  national, 
domestic,  social,  and  individual  ;  under  the  most  fa- 
vourable conditions  for  the  steady  development  of  all 
that  is  best  and  most  precious,  as  well  as  most  digni- 
fied, in  human  nature.  Then,  and  far  more  importantly, 
had  they,  in  the  second  place,  and  at  the  same  time,  more 
completely  subserved  the  intentions  of  the  Divine  iraiSa- 
ycoyog  (Educator)  in  holding  up  the  light  of  spiritual 
and  religious  truth  and  the  example  of  devout  God-fear- 
ing life  and  conduct,  and  in  extending  the  remedial  in- 
fluences of  these  (as  a  leaven)  among  other  nations.  The 
illumination  vouchsafed  to  Moses  enabled  him  to  con- 
ceive something  of  this  sort,  and  with  inspired  fervour  to 
set  it  before  the  Israelites ;  as,  for  instance,  more  especi- 


270  What  might  have  been  [lect. 

ally,  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  The  same  inspira- 
tion enabled  the  Prophets  of  Israel,  from  time  to  time, 
in  glowing  God-breathed  words  of  warm  appeal,  to  re- 
call tlie  tlioughts  of  a  stijf necked  and  rebellious  jyeojyle 
to  some  w^orthier  sense  of  their  high  and  noble  calling. 
And  the  glory  and  beauty  of  that  calling,  thus  set  forth, 
may  have  been  more  or  less  fully,  more  or  less  steadily, 
apprehended  by  some  at  least  of  the  elect  spirits  of  the 
Jewish  Church.  Such  as  were  loyal  and  faithful,  it 
may  have  been  in  lowly  place  and  in  lives  of  humble 
obscurity,  helped  on,  in  their  measure,  the  mighty 
purpose,  whether  they  knew  it  or  not,  whether  they 
entered  consciously  and  sympathetically  into  it  or  not, 
by  the  mere  goodness  and  blessedness  of  lives  spent  in 
loyal  love  and  dutiful  obedience  to  God,  the  God  of 
Israel,  their  King.  Had  such  appeals  been  more  suc- 
cessful, had  such  lives  been  more  generally  character- 
istic of  the  Nation  than  they  were,  we  can  well  imagine 
how  much  more  rapidly  the  Divine  Education  of  the 
world,  so  largely  dependent  as  it  was  on  the  progress 
and  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  race,  might  have  developed 
itself,  and  ripened,  both  among  Jews  and  Gentiles,  into 
an  earlier  readiness  for  the  Christ,  the  true  King,  not 
of  the  Jews  only,  but  of  all  Mankind,  the  Saviour  of  the 
World.  Then  had  the  fulness  of  the  time,  waiting  so 
mysteriously  on  human  wills,  and  arrested  and  delayed 
by  human  wilfulness  and  perversity,  and  by  sin-engen- 
dered incapacity  for  receiving  spiritual  ideas,  come  ear- 
lier (and,  may  we  say  %  more  blessedly),  than  it  did. 
Then,  possibly,  He  had  cowe  unto  His  0201,  and  His 
own  had  received  Him.     Then,  possibly,  had  the  Jewish 


v.]  had  they  been  faithful  to  it.  2  7 1 

Church  and  Nation,  as  such,  and  not  its  children  only, 
welcomed  Him  with  loud  and  genuine  Hosannas  to  the 
Son  of  David.  Then,  possibly,  with  joyful  unanimity, 
and  without  a  catastrophe  which  has  no  parallel  in 
history,  had  a  Christianised  Judaism,  the  Old  Covenant 
dissolving  and  transfigured  without  a  breach  into  the 
New,  found  in  the  Jews,  not  its  most  bigoted  and  violent 
antagonists,  but  most  fervent  and  effectual  missionaries 
for  the  spread  of  the  glad  tidings  of  moral  deliverance 
throughout  the  world.  Then,  possibly,  had  the  King- 
dom of  God  come  in  peace  as  well  as  in  power;  without 
the  birth-pangs  which  marked  the  deliverance  of  the 
Christian  daughter  from  the  Jewish  mother  ;  and  those 
times  of  restitution  the  sooner  and  the  more  fully  come, 
the  pictured  glories  of  which  stand  forth  in  the  glow- 
ing descriptions  of  the  inspired  Prophets  of  both  Cove- 
nants ^ ;  glories  which  have  received  an  immeasurably 

^  I  add  here  a  valuable  passage  from  Canon  Boyd  Carpenter's  Expo- 
sition of  the  Apocalypse  (chap,  vi,  in  Bishop  Ellicott's  New  Testament 
Commentary  for  English  Readers),  which  I  did  not  see  until  some 
months  after  this  Lecture  was  written ; — '  There  are  two  lines  of 
thought  in  the  Bible,  and  these  give  rise  to  two  apparently  contradic- 
tory sets  of  pictures.  There  are  the  pictures  of  wliat  would  be  the 
state  of  the  world  were  the  principles  of  Christ  fully  and  universally 
accepted ;  and  there  are  the  pictures  of  the  world  as  it  will  be  because 
men  do  not  fully  accept  them.  The  first  set  are  the  ideal,  and  include 
the  abolition  of  war,  social  injustice,  poverty,  when  the  golden  age  and 
reign  of  righteousness  shall  dawn.  When,  however,  we  speak  of  this 
as  ideal,  we  do  not  imply  that  it  is  visionary ;  it  is  the  sober  statement  of 
what  would  actually  take  place  were  the  rule  of  Christ  admitted  in  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  men,  and  what  will  take  place  whenever  they  do  so. 
But  between  this  grand  possibility  and  its  realization  stands  the  way- 
ward, and  tortuous,  and  weakened  human  will,  which  either  rejects  or 
fatally  but  half  adopts  the  teachings  of  God.  This  will  of  man,  seen  in 


272  TJic  full  ^Restitution''  still  delayed.      [lect. 

laro-er  measure  of  realization  in  the  Catholic  Church  of 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles,  as  they  received  a  faint  and 
sliadowy  realization  m  the  re-constituted  Church  and 
the  rebuilt  Temple  of  the  Return  from  the  Captivity ; 
but  which  vi^ait  yet  for  a  fuller  and  grander  develop- 

a  world  which  is  directly  hostile  to  Christ,  and  in  a  Church  which  is 
but  half  faithful  to  Him,  must  be  convinced  ere  the  true  ideal  of  Christ 
shall  be  attained,  and  the  fulness  of  His  kingdom  made  manifest.  Thus 
the  ideal  pictures  are  postponed,  and  the  world,  which  might  have  been 
saved  by  love  speaking  in  gentleness,  must  be  saved  by  love  speaking 
so  as  by  fire.  Now  in  the  earlier  Christian  times  the  hope  of  an  ideal 
kingdom,  soon  to  be  realized  in  the  immediate  establishment  of  Christ's 
kingdom,  was  very  strong.  The  first  disciples  yearned  to  see  it  imme- 
diately set  up.  "  Wilt  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  %  "  The 
golden  light  of  hope  lingered  long  in  their  minds ;  they  lived  in  the 
memory  of  those  pi'ophecies  which  foretold  the  cessation  of  wai',  sorrow, 
pain,  and  death.  They  thought,  now  that  Christ  had  come,  the  Mes- 
sianic kingdom  in  its  utter  gladness  must  immediately  appear.  They 
forgot  the  Prince's  visit  to  the  far  country  ;  they  forgot  the  citizens  who 
hated  Him,  and  rejected  His  rule ;  they  forgot  the  session  at  God's  right 
hand  till  His  enemies  were  made  His  footstool.  They  thought  the  day 
of  the  Lord,  in  the  sense  of  the  perfecting  of  His  i-eign,  was  at  hand  ; 
they  forgot  that  the  Heavenly  Bridegroom  must  gird  His  sword  upon 
His  thigh,  and  that  His  arrows  must  be  sharp  in  the  heart  of  the  King's 
enemies  {Ps.  xlv.  3,  5).  The  vision  of  these  seven  seals  is  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  warning  against  such  forgetfulness.  The  ideal  Kingdom 
might  come  if  mankind  would  receive  it,  but  it  must  be  established  by 
conviction,  not  by  coercion ;  and  so  the  actual  liistory  of  the  growth  of 
the  Kingdom  would  be  different  from  the  ideal ;  the  Church,  like  her 
Master,  must  be  made  perfect  through  sufferings ;  where  He  was,  His 
servant  must  be;  through  much  tribulation  the  Kingdom  must  be 
entered.  The  seals  unfold,  then,  the  general  aspects  of  the  world's 
history  after  Christ's  ascension.  Certain  features  would  continue ;  war, 
famine,  disease,  death  would  remain.  They  might,  indeed,  have  been 
abolished  had  Christ's  own  received  Him ;  but  as  it  was,  the  fact  of 
the  world's  will  being  in  opposition  to  God's  will  opposed  the  mani- 
festation of  the  peaceful  Kingdom.' 


v.]  Modern  critical  study  of  the  Bible  273 

ment  when  ilie  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled, 
and  the  long-suspended  destiny  of  Israel  as  an  instru- 
ment in  the  hand  of  God  shall  at  length  be  manifested 
as  life  from  the  dead;  when  the  heart  of  the  blind  Nation 
shall  turn,  at  last,  to  their  one  true  Lord  and  King,  and 
the  veil  shall  be  tahen  cnvay  from  their  eyes,  and  Joseph 
shall  be  revealed  to  his  brethren,  in  His  love,  and  in 
His  Majesty  and  Power. 

To  think  thus,  whether  in  respect  of  what  might 
have  been  or  of  what  may  yet  be,  is  not,  as  some  miglit 
deem,  to  give  the  rein  to  baseless  fancies.  We  are 
persuaded  that  the  observant  and  believing  student  of 
Revelation  as  a  whole  must  think  otherwise. 

133.  Much  patient  and  valuable  labour,  and  of  a 
kmd  that  needed  to  be  done,  has  been  bestowed  in  the 
course  of  the  last  fifty  years  on  the  outer  criticism  of 
the  writings  in  which  Revelation  is  enshrined.  The 
freest  handling  has  been  liberally  applied.  Every  con- 
ceivable theory,  as  to  their  origin,  authorship,  date, 
text,  integrity,  and  authenticity,  has  been  broached  ; 
and  has  been,  or  is  in  process  of  being,  warmly  and 
eagerly  discussed.  Much  that  is  true  and  valuable  will, 
no  doubt,  be  reached  as  the  total  abiding  result  of  such 
discussion,  when  it  has  had  its  perfect  work.  That  day 
is  not  yet ;  as  the  indefensible  alterations  of  the  Greek 
Text  of  the  New  Testament,  in  tlie  recent  Westminster 
Revision,  very  plainly  show.  But  that  the  final  result, 
whensoever,  and  after  whatsoever  oscillations  of  opinion, 
it  shall  at  length  be  attained,  will  only  be  to  set  in  a 
clearer  liglit  than  ever  the  essential  truth  of  the  great 
historic  Revelation  of  which  the  Bible  is  the  record,  the 

T 


2  74  often  too  partial  and  microscopic.         [lect, 

believing  and  instructed  Christian,  who  never  doubted 
it,  begins  already  distinctly  to  perceive.  It  is  well  that 
the  gold  should  be  tried  in  the  fire :  its  purity  will  thus 
be  only  the  more  clearly  demonstrated.  But  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  such  minute  critical  investigations 
do  not  tend,  (like  the  modern  realistic  fashion  of  dwell- 
ing so  much  on  the  outer  earthly  setting  of  Beve- 
lation,  and  the  profuse  illustration  of  its  history  and 
its  personages  from  Eastern  manners,  customs,  and  loca- 
lities, and  from  contemporary  history,)  to  draw  away 
men's  interest  and  attention,  to  some  extent,  from  the 
Revelation  itself.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the 
microscopic  study  of  its  several  component  parts  does 
not  interfere  with  the  perception  of  its  general  cohesion 
and  meaning  as  a  whole.  Yet  it  is  only  by  careful  and 
balanced  study  of  God's  Eevelation  as  a  whole,  gradually 
developed  under  the  action  of  His  Providence  in  human 
history  until  its  final  completion  in  the  Incarnate  Christ, 
and  illustrated  by  the  after  history  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  World,  that  a  true,  an  adequate,  a  growing,  con- 
ception of  its  meaning  can  be  attained  ;  or  a  firm  assur- 
ance of  its  impregnable  position,  as  a  light  shining  in  a 
ilarh  2)lcicey  in  the  deepening  conflict  of  the  Faith  with 
unbelief,  be  secured ;  and  the  true  principles  of  its  full 
interpretation,  especially  as  bearing  on  the  future  de- 
velopment of  the  Divine  purposes  in  human  history,  be 
discovered.  No  more  necessary  work,  it  would  seem, 
can  be  done,  in  these  days,  than  to  recall  men's  thoughts 
from  this  minute  piecemeal  study,  in  a  disputatious  and 
often  a  pedantic  spirit,  of  the  outside  preliminary  ques- 
tions  and   circumstances   of  Revelation,  to  its   inner 


v.]     The  study  of  God's  Purpose  is  permissible.    275 

essence  and  principles  as  a  whole ;  for  as  a  whole  it 
must  in  the  long  run  be  accepted  or  rejected. 

134.  Some  endeavour  to  grasp  the  Almighty's  ideal 
purpose  (if  we  may  so  express  ourselves),  in  His  Self- 
manifestation,  whether  in  Nature  or  in  Grace,  notwith- 
standing its  having  been  so  far  crossed  and  its  realiza- 
tion delayed,  within  the  scope  of  man's  world,  by  dis- 
obedience and  sin,  is  (it  may  well  be  thought)  both 
permissible  and  helpful  to  the  loyal  believer  ;  whose  one 
desire  is  to  be  faithful  to  it,  so  far  as  he  knows  it,  and 
so  far  as  his  powers  and  circumstances,  environed  and 
imprisoned  as  he  is  by  infirmity  and  imperfection,  will 
permit.  It  is  permissible,  for  such  things  tlie  angels  desire 
to  looh  into ;    and  we  much  more,  by  how  much  they 
concern  us  more  closely,  since  they  are  for  us  a  matter 
of  life  and  death ;    and,   again,  because,  to  a  certain 
extent,  and  up  to  the  limit  of  such  extent,  the  materials 
for  such  an  endeavour  are  supplied  to  our  reverent  con- 
templation ;  in  Nature,  as  dutifully  studied  by  candid 
and  patient  Science,  in  Kevelation,  and  in  the  course  of 
human  History  before  and  since  the  Incarnation.     Fur- 
ther, the  devout  study  of  God's  Purpose,  as  revealed, 
is  not  only  permissible  but  useful,  and  even  necessary. 
So  far  as  it  is  revealed,  it  is  surely  revealed  in  order 
that  his  servants  may  understand  it,  and  concur  with  it, 
and  co-operate  with  PHm  for  its  furtherance,  for  the 
good  of  all.     The  mischievous  effects  of  the  want  of  a 
sufhcient  appreciation  of  it  are  seen  in  the  narrowness 
of  view  which  thinks  only  of  future  individual  salva- 
tion, and  is  a  ready  prey  to  that  spirit  of  disunion  and 
separation  which  is  the  bane  of  modern  Christianity. 

T  2 


276  The  assistance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  promised,  [lect. 

The  true  conception  of  a  Christian  is  of  a  man  now 
already  consciously  redeemed  and  saved  by  Christ ;  filled 
by  Him  with  a  new  life  throughout  his  moral  and  spiri- 
tual nature,  and  that  life  the  indwelling  force  and  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  He  is  a  man  pledged  to 
serve  his  Saviour,  whose  he  is,  with  all  liLs  powers  ;  and 
enlisted  for  that  very  purpose  in  the  '  Salvation  Army' 
which  Christ  formed  for  the  conquest  of  the  world,  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  whole  company  of  Baptized  Be- 
hevers  throughout  the  world;  a  man  who,  saved  himself, 
desires  to  help  all  others,  as  he  can,  out  of  the  'power  of 
darhiess  into  the  Kingdom — the  present  Kingdom,  full 
of  life  and  joy  and  blessedness — of  God's  dear  Son.  In 
the  case  of  the  English-speaking  peoples,  even  among 
earnest  believers  in  the  essential  truths  of  Christian 
faith,  the  idea  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  of  the 
Church  as  a  corporate  whole,  an  organized  body — the 
Body,  and  the  Kingdom,  of  the  Christ — and  of  its  insti- 
tution as  such  by  Him  for  the  very  purpose  of  its  being 
an  unequalled  power  in  the  world  for  good,  has  been 
almost  lost ;  and  with  it,  to  a  very  great  extent,  as  our 
lamentable  and  even  ridiculous  failures  show,  the  power 
of  really  adequate  and  successful  missionary  effort,  whe- 
ther at  home  or  abroad. 

135.  To  the  exercise  of  their  powers  by  Christian 
believers  in  the  endeavour  rightly  to  understand,  and 
so  to  work  with,  the  drift  of  God's  revealed  purpose 
and  method,  the  assistance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  pro- 
mised. In  other  times,  the  special  direction  given  by 
the  circumstances  and  necessities  of  the  day  to  general 
Christian  thought  has  led  to  a  fuller  realization,  which 


v.]  to  lead  Christians  to  fuller  truth,  i^j"] 

has  been  almost  like  a  fresh  discovery,  of  previously 
latent  truth. 

Compare  Dorner,  Person  of  Christ,  vol,  i.  Introd.  p.  48, 
'  History  of  Dogmas  has  to  show  how  the  objective 
tendency  concerning  Christ,  given  for  all  times,  is,  in  the 
entire  fulness  of  all  its  elements,  more  and  more  disclosed 
to  the  consciousness  of  the  Church  in  virtue  of  her  work, 
conducted  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  No  generation  of  the 
Church,  least  of  all  the  first,  has  the  entire  riches  of  the 
Apostolic  preaching  vitally  in  it :  the  word  of  Christ  and 
His  Apostles  rather  stretches  beyond  and  over  each,  as 
the  all-sufficient  norm,  even  to  the  end  o.f  time.' 

And  DoUinger,  First  Age,  Preface,  p.  viii,  'Christians 
themselves  £i.  e.  of  the  First  Age]  were  very  far  from 
appreciating  the  reach,  and  the  force  for  the  world's 
culture,  of  those  spiritual  and  moral  powers  laid  up  in 
the  bosom  of  their  society,  and  entrusted  to  their  care 
and  administration.  On  the  other  hand  nearly  two 
thousand  years  of  Christian  history  are  spread  before  our 
eyes  ;  we  are  in  a  position  to  embrace  and  measure  the 
process  of  development  working  itself  out  by  an  internal 
law  of  necessary  sequence,  a  continually  advancing  and 
constructive  process,  never,  indeed,  transcending  the 
original  fulness  of  its  internal  being,  but  far  surpassing 
the  simple  outlines  and  primitive  forms  of  thought  and 
life  in  the  Apostolic  age.  In  the  light  of  this  long 
experience,  where  every  age  is  a  commentary  to  illustrate 
the  preceding  one,  we  can  pierce  more  deeply  into  the 
teachings  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  and  exhibit  all  its 
bearings  more  fully  than  former  generations  could.' 

This  process  has  also  led  to  a  hardly  less  blessed 
revision  of  opinions  largely  held,  and  sometimes,  un- 
happily, enforced,  at  least  in  portions  of  the  divided 
Church,  but  which  varied  from  the  real  truth  of  Keve- 
lation  by  either  defect  or  distortion  or  exaggeration. 


278  and,  especially,  to  worthier  thoughts      [lect. 

We  cannot  refuse  to  hope  and  believe  that  there  is 
vet  room,  as  there  certainly  is  need,  in  the  Church  of 
the  present  and  of  the  near  future,  for  the  further  bene- 
ficial operation  of  a  similar  jorocess  in  both  its  forms  ; 
First,  in  the  revision  of  current  opinions,  often  the  lifeless 
residuum  of  old  controversies  between  partial  and  one- 
sided schools  of  thought,  and  now  simply  a  dead-weight 
on  Christian  thought  and  a  stumbling-block  to  faith ; 
and  also  in  the  bringing  forth  into  the  light,  as  the 
realized  and  consciously-held  possession  of  the  Christian 
Body,  of  truths, — it  may  be  germinant  and  pregnant 
truths,  and,  in  future  circumstances  of  the  Church, 
highly  practical  and  controlling  truths, — which  are,  as 
yet,  an  unused  part  of  the  deposit,  latent  and  unper- 
ceived,  or,  if  once  present  to  the  mind  of  the  Church, 
since  overlaid  and  forgotten. 

Among  these  will  be  a  fidler,  worthier,  grasp  of  the 
great  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  a 
quickened  appreciation  of  the  Royalty  of  Christ,  as  the 
Only-Begotten  Son  of  God,  the  Sovereign  Heir  of  all 
things ;  and  more  especially  of  His  claims  in  His  relation 
to  the  whole  human  world,  as  King,  the  Prince  of  the 
Kings  of  the  Earth,  the  one  perfect  Ideal  Man,  the 
Head  of  the  Church  and  of  Humanity,  the  King  of 
Kings,  and  Lord  of  Lords.  And  this  we  may  expect 
to  be  accompanied  by  a  stronger  sense  of  the  paramount 
duty,before  all  things,  of  earnest  loyalty  to  Him,  of  earnest 
work  for  Him,  and  for  His  kingdom  ;  and,  springing 
out  of  this,  a  drawing  together  of  those  who  call  Him 
their  Lord  and  King  into  a  closer  love  and  union  with 
each  other,  as  part  of  His  most  clearly  expressed  will ; 


v.]  of  the  Royalty  of  Christ.  lyi) 

a  more  wholesome  dread  of  offending  Him  and  drawing 
down  His  judgments  by  breach  of  His  commandments, 
or  hindrance  of  the  progress  of  His  kingdom,  or  re- 
sistance to  His  holy  rule  of  moral  righteousness  in 
personal,  or  in  public  life,  religious  or  secular  \ 

'  An  interesting  illustration  of  the  value  of  the  due  presentation  of  the 
Royalty  of  Christ  comes  (November,  1882)  from  the  missionary  field  of 
East  Central  Africa.  The  Rev.  Chauncy  Maples,  of  the  Universities  Mis- 
sion, in  a  Paper  on  The  Method  of  evangelising  uncultured  Ro/ces  (No. 
9  of  Occasional  Papers,  Oxford  Mission  Press,  Calcutta),  writes  thus : — 
'  The  fact  is  certain  that  here  where  I  am  writing  (at  Masasi)  it  is  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  the  King  of  men  and 
angels — together  indeed  with  the  central  fact  of  the  Incarnation,  and  the 
Sacrifice  of  the  Cross — that,  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  has  proved 
the  attractive  power,  compelling  belief  in  and  attention  to  the  preach- 
ing of  Christianity.  Even  while  saying  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ's 
Death  has  drawn  them,  I  cannot  but  add  that  it  was  the  fact  of  the 
Offering  made  by  the  Person  of  the  Son  of  God  that  seems  to  have 
filled  them  with  awe,  and  brought  them  to  the  very  foot  of  the  Cross 
.  .  .  the  Majesty  of  Christ  has  compelled  their  allegiance,  and  brought 
them  to  Him  in  fear  and  awe  with  a  sense  that  they  must  obey  .  .  . 
God  in  His  attribute  of  infinite  and  absolute  Power  is  thoroughly 
believed  in  by  all  the  native  races.  From  this  we  start  .  .  .  Next  we 
.speak  of  His  Kingdom  upon  earth,  and  exhibit  Him  as  conferring  the 
Government  upon  His  Son,  and  sending  Him  down  to  us  to  take  His 
great  power  and  reign.  By  this  time  we  have  reached  a  doctrine 
which  will  not  sound  strange  in  their  ears.  jSIassing  themselves  as 
they  do  under  their  local  chieftains  .  .  .  they  yield  them  a  cheerful  and 
hearty  obedience  .  .  .  with  all  this  practical  and  daily  recognition  of 
their  duty  as  subjects  of  a  king  they  hear  of  the  Onniipotent  One  as 
their  great  King,  and  not  theirs  only  but  the  King  of  all  nations  and 
kindreds  and  tongues  .  .  .  Messiah  the  Anointed  One  they  bow  before, 
ere  they  have  learned  to  realize  that  He  and  Jesus  the  Saviour  are  one. 
That  God's  Son  is  God,  co-equal  in  majesty,  power,  and  miglit,  co- 
equal in  the  Godhead,  with  the  Fatlier,  suggests  no  doubt  to  their 
mind.  Henceforth  God  the  Omnipotent  is  for  them  Messiah  their 
King,  and  they  press  forward  for  admission  to  His  Kingdom.' 


LECTURE   YI. 

THE  INCARNATION;  THE  WORK  OF  THE  INCARNATE 
MEDIATOR,  ON  EARTH,  AND  IN  THE  UNSEEN. 

St,  John  i.  14.     'O  Ao'yos  aap^  eyevero,  /cat  kcxKrivciXT^v  kv  rjfxiv. 
(The  Word  became  Flesh,  and  tabernacled  among  us.) 

136.  At  length  the  fulness  of  the  time  was  come. 
Even  the  non-Christian  student  of  history  is  compelled 
to  admit  the  propriety  of  the  expression  as  applied  to  a 
period  when,  if  ever,  some  new  birth  of  time,  some  fresh 
and  powerful  spiritual  upheaving,  might  suitably  find 
its  place,  as  the  close  of  one  epoch,  the  beginning  of 
another.  Many  extended  forms  of  secular  civilization, 
in  some  of  which  the  material  elements  of  human  great- 
ness, in  others  the  intellectual,  in  others  the  political, 
predominated,  had  in  their  turn  arisen.  All  but  the 
last,  the  Eoman,  had  fallen  into  decay;  leaving  such 
permanent  elements  as  they  had  for  the  possession  of 
the  future.  Many  ancient  forms  of  religion,  all  origi- 
nally containing  elements  of  truth  from  primeval  tra- 
dition, had  run  their  several  courses  downward,  into 
degeneracy  and  corruption ;  and  had  all,  without  excep- 
tion, practically  passed  away.  Moral  forces  (I  am  speak- 
ing, of  course,  of  the  Heathen  world),  had  also  equally 
exhausted  themselves.  Their  failure,  operating,  as  it 
ever  must,  to  the  degradation  of  personal,  domestic, 
and  social  life,  and  not  without  its  effect  in  the  disin- 


\ 


The  'fulness  of  the  time^  281 

tegration  also  of  political  life,  and  consequent  develop- 
ment of  despotic  imperialism,  had  produced  the  condi- 
tion of  society  which  the  literary  remains  of  its  own 
historians  and  poets — and,  remembering  the  loathsome 
revelations  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii,  we  may  add, 
its  monumental  and  artistic  remains  also — combine 
with  Saint  Paul  to  describe,  to  our  horror  indeed,  but 
also  for  our  warning.  Not  less  marked  symptoms  of 
impending  change  are  discernible  in  the  condition  of 
God's  ancient  People.  The  scei^tre  had  departed  from 
Judali  {Gen.  xlix.  10).  Roman  procurators  and  gover- 
nors ruled  Syria  and  Palestine.  Caesar's  coinage  was 
current  in  the  Holy  Land.  His  legions  kejDt  the  peace 
at  Caesarea  and  in  Jerusalem.  The  old  Theocracy  was 
in  all  but  its  last  stage.  It  had  but  one  more  oppor- 
tunity to  reject  before  its  fall.  Yet  its  subjects  were 
now  a  world-wide  people.  Its  moral  and  spiritual 
influence  were  more  widely  extended  than  ever.  In 
every  city  of  the  Homan  Empire,  and  beyond  it,  was  a 
Jewish  community ;  with  its  synagogue,  with  its  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  now  translated  into  Greek,  and 
its  regular  worship  of  the  One  true  God  ;  a  centre  of 
light  amid  the  surrounding  darkness,  a  witness  to  pre- 
sent truth,  the  nurse  of  the  cherished  expectation  of 
further  and  fuller  light.  All  these  phenomena  were  ex- 
hibited in  the  very  local  centre  of  the  world,  the  coun- 
tries that  border  on  the  Mediterranean  basin,  the  great 
highway  of  nations.  The  'Pax  Romana'  held  the  world 
together  and  at  rest.  Inter-communication  by  sea  and 
land  was  highly  developed.  The  necessities  of  govern- 
ment, commerce,  and  religion,  the  two  last  especially 


282  demanded  some  striking  change.  [lect. 

operative  on  the  Jews,  created  a  constant  movement  to 
and  fro  of  large  bodies  of  men,  which  was  highly  favour- 
able to  the  rapid  transmission  and  dissemination  of  new 
ideas.  Concurrently  with  all  this  there  was  the  remark- 
able prevalence  of  a  very  general  expectation  of  the  im- 
minent coming  of  some  great  one,  who  should  arise  in 
the  East,  and  should  rule  the  world.  However  true  it 
be  that  this  belief  first  spread  among  the  Jews,  and 
must  have  been  communicated  to  the  Gentiles  by  con- 
tact with  them,  the  fact  is  attested  by  the  impartial 
witness  of  Virgil  and  Tacitus  and  Suetonius  ^,  as  well 
as  by  that  of  Josephus  ^  and  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament. 

137.  The  co-existence  .of  all  these  elements,  which 
make  up  the  then  fulness  of  the  times,  is  simple  matter 
of  hard  dry  history.  It  is  for  the  impartial  student  to 
consider  its  explanation,  and  to  weigh  its  significance, 
first,  as  it  stands  as  a  phenomenon  by  itself,  and,  even 
so,  demanding  with  imperious  outcry  some  new  develop- 
ment, some  onward  step  ;  and,  secondly,  as  it  stands 
related  to  the  subsequent  course  of  history,  which 
equally  witnesses,  and  under  our  very  eyes  continues 
to  witness,  to  very  remarkable  changes,  in  the  highest 
regions  of  human  life,  dating  from  that  time  ;  changes 
only  explicable  in  the  hypothesis  of  the  introduction, 
at  that  time,  of  new  forces  into  human  society ;  forces, 
as  Christians  maintain,  of  supernatural  and  divine 
origin,  the  gift  of  One  '  whose  never-failing  Providence 
ordereth  all  things  in  heaven  and  in  earth,'  of  One  who, 

^  Yirg'il, Eclogue,\v.;  Tacitus,  Histories, w.i"^)  Suetonius,  Ves;pasian,  4. 
^  Josephus,  Jewish  War,  VI.  v.  4. 


VI.]        The  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God        283 

revealed  or  unrevealed,  recognised  or  unknown,  has 
been  thronghout,  and  is,  the  merciful  and  gracious 
ITai^a^coyo?,  the  Guide  and  Educator  of  the  world. 

What,  then,  was  the  great  event,  which,  occurring 
at  such  a  crisis,  is  the  secret  impelling  force  and  cause 
of  the  striking  changes  in  the  condition  of  mankind 
discernible,  as  matter  of  fact,  in  their  later  history,  to 
our  own  day  \    Only  Christianity  gives  the  true  answer. 

'  O  Love  liow  deep,  how  broad,  how  high, 
It  fills  the  heart  with  ecstasy, 
That  God  the  Son  of  God  should  take 
Our  mortal  form  for  mortals'  sake ! 

He  sent  no  Angel  to  our  race, 
Of  higher  or  of  lower  place; 
Wearing  our  robe  of  human  frame 
Himself  to  save  His  world  He  came. 

Nor  willed  He  only  to  appear; 
His  pleasure  was  to  tarry  here ; 
And  God,  made  Man,  with  man  would  be 
The  space  of  thirty  years  and  three  ^' 

^  '  0  Amor  quam  exstaticus, 

quam  effluens,  quam  nimius, 
qui  Deum  Dei  Filium 
unum  fecit  mortalium  ! 

Non  invisit  nos  angelo, 
seu  supremo,  sen  iufimo ; 
carnis  assumens  pallium 
venit  ad  nos  per  Se  Ipsum. 

Non  solum  Se  ostendere 
voluit,  sed  convivere 
Dkus-iiomo  honiinil)us 
hie  anuis  trigiuta  tribus.' 

(From  a  Mediaeval  Cento,  given  in  Mone's  Lateinische  Ilyjnnen  des 
Mittelalters,  Freiburg,  1853,  vol.  i.  p.  67.) 


284        constituted  Him  the  perfect  Mediator,     [lect. 

Yes  :  Tee  Wobd  was  made  flesh^  and  dwelt  among  us. 
The  Son  of  God,  Who  had  all  along  been  the  Angel  of 
Mercy  to  the  human  race,  as  He  had  ever  been  the 
One  Mediator  of  Life  and  Light  from  the  Godhead  to 
the  Created  Universe,  now,  at  length,  *  for  us  men  and 
for  our  salvation,  came  down  from  Heaven,  and  was 
incarnate,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  the  Virgin  Mary ;  and 
was  made  man.'  Consubstantial  from  everlasting  with 
the  Father,  He  now  took  our  flesh  '  of  the  substance  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  His  Mother,  and  that  without  spot  of 
sin,  to  make  us  clean  from  all  sin.' 

By  this  act  His  Mediatorship  was,  at  length  and  for 
ever,  constituted  in  its  full  absolute  pre-ordained  com- 
pleteness and  perfection.  That  which  all  along  had 
been  prepared  for  and  foretold  ;  that  towards  which  all 
things  had  before  been  tending,  at  the  length  was  fully 
realized.  The  most  stupendous  event  happened  which 
thought  can  conceive  ;  the  most  stupendous,  whether 
in  itself  or  in  its  consequences — consequences  which  can 
have  no  limit,  whether  in  the  ranks  of  created  exist- 
ence, or  through  the  process  of  the  unending  future. 
The  actual  Union  of  the  Creator  with  the  Creature 
was  effected  in  the  Person  of  the  Eternal  Son. 

At  tliis  point  I  thankfully  insert  a  passage,  on  the 
too  frequent  insensibility  among  Christians  to  the  gran- 
deur of  the  Incarnation,  from  a  Sermon  (No.  XLII)  by 
Dr.  Dwight,  the  (Congregationalist)  President  (1795- 
1817)  of  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  U.S.A. 

'  No  subject  presents  to  us  so  wonderful  an  example  of 
(Condescension  as  the  Incarnation  of  Christ ;  nor  could  any 
fact  fill  our  minds  with  the  same  astonishment,  were  it 
not  that  we  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  it  repeated 


VI.]  Too  frequent  hisensidility  to  the  285 

from  the  cradle,  and,  like  the  state  of  the  weather,  ren- 
dered an  object  of  perpetual  familiarity  ;  a  thing",  almost, 
of  course,  in  the  ordinary  current  of  our  thoughts,  by  in- 
creasing inculcation.     From  these  causes  we  pass  it  with- 
out serious  attention,  and,  even  when  we  dwell  upon  it, 
scarcely  realize  its  nature.  The  impressions  which  it  makes 
on   the  mind,  resemble  those  made  on  the  eye  of  such 
as  have  been  long  accustomed  to  them,  by  a  delightful 
landscape,  a  stupendous  cataract,  or  a  mountain  which 
loses  its  summit  in  the  clouds.     At  the  view  o-f  these 
a  stranger  is  fixed  in  exquisite  delight,  and  has  all  his 
thoughts   engrossed    and  his  emotions  absorbed  by  the 
wonderful  scene.     No  language  will,  in  his  view,  serve 
to  describe,  and  no  picture  to  image,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
beauty,  or  on  the  other,  the  sublimity,  of  these  illustrious 
objects.     To  do  them  justice  in  his  representations,  and 
to  spread  fairly  before  others  the  views,  formed  of  them 
by  his  own  mind,  he  will  labour  in  thought,  select  and 
refuse,  alternately,  the  language  which  offers  itself,  and 
will  at   last  sit  down  discouraged,   without   a    hope   of 
being  al^le  to  render  his  conceptions  visible  to  other  eyes, 
or  to  do  anything  like  justice  to  what  was  so  magnificent 
in  the  view  of  his  own.     Those,  in  the  mean  time,  who 
have  long  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  same  objects, 
will  in  many,  though  not  indeed  in  all  instances,  survey 
them  without  emotion,  and  even  without  attention  ;  ap- 
parently as  insensible  to  their  beauty  and  grandeur  as  the 
horses  which  they  ride,  or  the  oxen  which  they  drive. 
Such  seem  but  too  commonly  to  be  the  views  formed  by 
most  men  concerning  the  Incarnation  of  Christ,  and  such 
the  insensibility  with  which  it  is  but  too  generally  re- 
garded.    Even   Christians,  like  their  predecessors  men- 
tioned in  the  Gospel,  are,  in  innumerable  instances,  "fools  " 
in  this  respect,  "  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe,"  or  even  to 
realize.   But  let  us,  for  a  moment  at  least,  lay  aside  these 
obtuse  views,  these  "  eyes  "  which  *'  are  dull  of  seeing," 
these  "hearts  "  too  "gross  to  understand."    Let  us  shake 


2  86  grandeur  and  blessedness  [lect. 

off  the  torpor  which  benumbs  our  framCj  and  rouse  our- 
selves to  perception  and  feeling-.  Let  us  regard  this 
wonderful  subject  with  common  justice,  and  common 
candour. 

The  glorious  Person,  who  in  the  Scriptures  is  desig- 
nated by  the  appellation,  'O  Ao'yos  rov  0eoO,  or  the  Word 
of  God,  ''  in  the  beg-inning  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  ; "  and  said,  "  Let  there  be  a  firmament,  and  there 
was  a  firmament."  His  hand  also  lighted  up  the  flame  of 
the  sun,  and  kindled  the  stars.  He  "  upholds  "  the  uni- 
verse "  by  the  word  of  His  power ; "  and  preserves  order 
and  regularity  throughout  all  the  parts  of  this  amazing 
system.  In  the  heavens  He  shines  with  inexpressible 
splendour.  On  the  earth  He  lives  and  works,  provides 
and  sustains,  and  satisfies  the  wants  of  every  living  thing. 
Throughout  immensity  He  quickens  into  life,  action, 
and  enjoyment  the  innumerable  multitudes  of  intelligent 
beings.  The  universe  which  He  made,  He  also  governs. 
The  worlds  of  which  it  is  composed.  He  rolls  through  the 
infinite  expanse  with  an  almighty  and  unwearied  hand, 
and  preserves  them  in  their  respective  places  and  motions 
with  an  unerring  harmony.  From  the  vast  storehouse 
of  his  bounty,  he  feeds  and  clothes  the  endless  millions 
whom  His  hand  has  made,  and  from  the  riches  of  His 
own  unchangeable  mind,  informs  the  innumerable  host  of 
intelligent  creatures  with  ever  improving  virtue,  dignity, 
and  glory.  To  all  these  He  allots  the  respective  parts 
which  they  are  qualified  to  act  in  the  boundless  system  of 
good  which  His  wisdom  contrived,  and  His  power  has 
begun  to  execute ;  furnishes  them  with  the  means  of  being 
useful  in  His  eternal  kingdom ;  and  thus  prepares  them 
to  be  amiable  and  excellent  in  His  sight,  and  instru- 
ments of  perpetually  increasing  good  to  each  other. 

At  the  head  of  this  great  kingdom  He  "  sits  upon  a 
throne  high  and  lifted  up,"  "  far  exalted  above  all 
heavens;"  surveys,  with  intuitive  view,  and  with  divine 
complacency,  the   amazing  work  which  His  voice   has 


vl]  of  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation,  287 

called  into  being,  and  beholds  it  increasing-  without  in- 
termission in  happiness,  wisdom,  and  virtue,  and  advanc- 
ing-, with  a  regular  progress,  towards  consummate  glory 
and  perfection. 

Although  "  He  is  not  worshipped,  as  though  He  needed 
anything,  seeing  He  giveth  unto  all  life,  and  breath, 
and  all  things;"  yet  before  Him  angels  bow  and  veil 
their  faces.  "The  four  living  ones  rest  not  day  nor 
night,  crying,  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,  who 
wast,  and  who  art,  and  who  art  to  come."  And  the  whole 
multitude  of  the  heavenly  host,  "  the  number  of  whom  is 
ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,  and  thousands  of  thou- 
sands," unite  in  the  everlasting  song,  "Blessing,  and 
honour,  and  glory,  and  power,  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth 
upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever  and  ever.'" 

From  this  stupendous  height  of  greatness  and  enjoy- 
ment, this  Divine  Person,  passing  all  the  bounds  between 
God  and  man,  between  the  infinite  mind  and  lifeless 
matter,  united  himself  to  "man,  who  is  but  a  worm;" 
assumed  to  himself  a  human  soul  and  a  body,  and  in  a 
manner  incomprehensible  by  us,  and  not  improbably  by 
all  other  creatures,  became  thenceforth  God-man,  insepa- 
rably united  in  one  most  wonderful  and  mysterious  Person. 

What  were  the  views  which  angels  formed  of 

this  new  and  astonishing  event  ?  Easily  may  we  imagine, 
that  all  heaven  was  lost  in  wonder,  and  buried  in  silence, 
to  behold  this  transition  from  infinite  glory  to  supreme 
humiliation,  from  the  throne  of  the  universe  to  a  tene- 
ment of  clay.  How  instinctively  ought  we,  uniting  with 
angels  in  the  same  views  and  the  same  emotions,  to  behold, 
wonder  and  adore ! ' 

As  was  befitting,  tlie  Incarnation  was,  at  the  first,  a 
secret  known  only  to  a  few ;  and,  most  probably,  not 
by  any,  even  of  them,  realized,  in  full  consciousness  of 
its  miirbtv,  its  awful  siojnificance,  until  after  the  Resur- 
rectiou  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     At  the  first, 


288  which  brought  fresh  possibilities  of       [lect. 

as  always,  the  Kingdom  of  God  cometli  not  with  observa- 
tion. The  ever  blessed  visit  of  the  angel  of  the  An- 
nunciation was,  probably,  far  long  years  a  cherished 
secret  in  the  families  of  Joseph  and  Maiy,  of  Zachariah 
and  Elizabeth.  The  Gloria  in  Excehis  sounded  but  in 
the  ears  of  a  few  humble  shej)Jiercls  abiding  in  the  field. 
The  meaning  of  the  Star  in  the  East  was  understood 
only  by  the  few  whom  it  drew  on  their  pilgrimage  to 
the  cradle  at  Bethlehem  ^  To  others,  as  to  us,  the 
knowledge  of  these  things,  and  of  Him  Whose  coming 
they  announced,  came  from  the  lips,  and  from  the  pens, 
of  others.  But  it  is  a  knowledge  to  whose  objective 
historic  reality,  to  whose  moral  and  spiritual  power, 
the  Christian  not  only  believes  each  subsequent  page 
of  the  world's  history,  but  also  his  own  daily  experience 
and  inner  life,  to  bear  their  more  than  sufficient  witness. 
138.  The  Eternal  Son  of  God  was  now  in  very  truth 
a  daysman  Who  could  lay  His  hand  upon  us  both  [Job 
ix.  33),  and  so  a  perfect  Mediator.  And  as  He  had  been 
the  Mediator  all  along,  in  the  earlier,  less  perfect,  pre- 
paratory stages  of  His  Work,  not  only  between  God 
and  man,  but  also  between  God  and  the  heavenly  host 
of  intelligent  and  immortal  beings  superior  to  man,  so 
was  He  still.  To  them  also  the  mystery  of  the  Incar- 
nation opened  up  fresh  views  of  the  manifold  wisdom 
and  resources,  and  of  the  inestimable  love,  of  God  ;  and 
(we  cannot  doubt)  new  openings  of  spiritual  advance- 
ment in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God,  and  of  closer 
communion  with  Him.  For,  in  that  it  was  the  closest 
possible  union  between  the  Creator  and  the  Creature, 
^  Compare  St.  Ignatius,  Ep.  to  the  Epliesians,  xix. 


VI.]  advancement  to  the  whole  Creation.  289 

it  was,  though  actually  effected  in  the  nature  which 
was  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  the  closest  union  with 
them  also.  Nay  more,  since  the  Nature  of  Man  is  the 
microcosm  of  Creation,  including  and  representing  all 
its  elements,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  the  Incar- 
nation unites  even  material  nature  to  the  Creator.  It 
is  in  very  truth,  even  to  our  imperfect  apprehension, 
and,  of  course,  with  consequences  which  we  cannot  at 
present  even  guess  at,  a  recapitulation,  a  gathering 
together,  a  summing  up  in  one,  all  things  in  Christ, 
hoth  the  things  in  the  heavens  and  the  things  ujion  the 
earth  {Ej^h.  i.  10). 

In  the  Incarnate  Son  we  see  united,  in  the  most  inti- 
mate way  conceivable,  and  that  indissolubly,  the  abso- 
lute Divine  perfection  and  the  crown  and  summit  of 
creaturely  perfection ;  and  that  in  a  material  and  object- 
ively visible  form.  In  Him  the  idea  of  God  in  Creation 
is  absolutely  realized ;  in  Him,  but  not  for  Him  only  ; 
for  His  Incarnation  is  the  beginning  of  a  New  Creation, 
whereby  the  old  Creation,  even  in  this  province  of  it, 
which  we  know  only  too  well,  of  fallen  man  and  his 
fallen  world,  may  be  uplifted  to  otherwise  unattainable 
degrees  of  glory  and  beauty,  of  goodness  and  perfection, 
in  an  undreamt-of  nearness  to  God,  and  in  unimagined 
inflowings,  through  the  contact  and  union  thus  estab- 
lished, of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  '  the  Lord,  the  Life- 
giver/  ever  and  only  vouchsafed  through  the  One 
Mediator. 

But  for  us  the  Divine  Son  becomes,  through  His 
Incarnation,  a  personage  in  human  history.  As  Man 
He  performs  for  man,  and  on  man's  earth,  a  '  finished 

u 


290  The  Incarnation  is  especially  [lect. 

work '  of  Redemption,  and  of  Reconciliation  of  man  to 
God,  which  results  in  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  the  one  regenerating  and  renewing  influence,  upon 
man.  It  will  be  the  endeavour  of  this  and  of  the 
remaining  Lectures  of  this  series  to  trace  this  work, 
in  its  progress  and  main  features,  as  a  work  of  Salvation 
through  Mediation. 

1 39.  On  earth  j^eace,  goodwill  toward  men. — Such  was 
the  chant  of  the  angel-choir,  announcing  the  essential 
feature,  as  towards  man  and  his  supreme  need,  of  the 
heaven-sent  messasre  of  which  the  mano;er-birtli  in  Beth- 
lehem  was  the  outward  and  visible  sign.  Peace  I  leave 
ivitli  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  you,  was  the  last  bequest, 
the  dying  legacy,  of  the  Christ  to  the  little  flock  of  His 
believing  followers.  Peace  he  unto  you,  was  His  first 
joyful  salutation,  when,  on  the  first  Easter-night,  He 
manifested  Himself  again  among  them  in  His  Risen 
Glory ;  and  proceeded  to  give  them,  from  Himself,  as 
He  breathed  upon  them,  His  redeemed  ones,  His  Mysti- 
cal Body,  that  all-inclusive  gift  of  the  very  Spirit  and 
Life  of  God  which  comes  at  once  when  peace  is  re-estab- 
lished between  man  and  God;  Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

The  inherent  and  essential  evil  of  sin,  which  the  Son 
of  God  came  from  Heaven  as  the  Son  of  Man  to  undo, 
and  so  to  destroy  the  tvorhs  of  the  devil,  is  its  being 
defiance  of  God,  mistrust  of  God,  separation  from  God, 
opposition  to  God.  Sin  means  war  against  God ;  war 
against  His  Law  and  Will,  in  obedience  to  which  the 
creature's  happiness  and  perfection  must  necessarily 
consist.     It  involves  a  perversion  on  the  part  of  man 


VI.]  a  message  of  Peace  to  Man.         *        291 

of  all  the  elements  of  his  nature  into  instruments  of 
this  opposition.  All  the  minor  forces,  agencies,  and 
circumstances,  intended  to  be  subservient  to  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  happiness  of  man,  to  which  man's  will 
and  man's  influence  can  reach,  are  degraded  and  abused 
by  sin.  The  results  of  this  alienation  from  God  had 
abundantly  showed  themselves  in  the  past  history  of 
mankind,  before  the  Flood  and  after  it.  And  now  once 
again  a  fulness  of  the  times  was  come.  Again,  all  the 
world,  Jewish  and  Gentile  alike,  was  hecome  guilty  before 
God  [Romans  iii.  19).  Once  more  was  come  a  time  of 
visitation,  for  both ;  a  time  of  judgment,  or  of  mercy 
which  should  prevent  judgment ;  or,  in  truer,  deeper, 
wider  view,  a  time  both  of  mercy  and  of  judgment ; 
a  day  of  mercy  for  those  who  would  accept  it,  knoiving 
the  time  of  their  visitation,  feeling  and  acknowledging 
their  need,  longing  for  its  satisfaction,  looking  for  re- 
de7nj)tion  ;  a  time  of  the  blessing  of  'peace  for  those  who 
were  sons  of  i)eace ;  (and  in  this  sense  we  may  under- 
stand the  reading,  if  it  be  the  true  one,  eV  avOpcoTrois 
evSoKiag, '  Et  in  terra  pax  hominibus  bonae  voluntatis '), 

'  On  eai-th  be  peace, 
And  love  towards  men  of  love — salvation  and  release,' 

(Cheistian  Year,  Christmas  Day) 

or  else  a  day  of  judgment ;  and  that  the  more  severe 
for  the  mercy  which  had  been  offered,  but  in  vain,  and 
whose  rejection  left  no  more  that  could  be  done. 

For  all,  then,  who  should  accept  Him,  the  Son  of 
God  came  as  the  Ambassador  of  Peace.  He  came  to 
carry  into  execution  the  counsel  of  i^eace  (Ztch.  vi.  1 3) 

u  2 


292         Christ s  whole  Life  infinite  in  value,     [lect, 

which  was  in  the  heart  of  God  towards  man ;  and  to 
bring  back  man  to  God  ;  potentially,  all  men ;  actually, 
all  who  should  not  finally  and  decisively  resist  His  grace. 
140.  But  we  premise  first,  that,  in  our  reverent 
and  adoring  study  of  the  Mediatorial  Work  of  the 
Incarnate  Lord,  as  it  is  set  before  us  in  the  fourfold 
picture  of  the  Holy  Gospels,  and  in  the  inspired  com- 
ment upon  it  furnished  by  the  remaining  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  we  devoutly  acknowledge  an  untold 
value  and  efficacy  in  the  whole  earthly  life  of  our  Lord. 
From  His  Birth  and  Circumcision,  and  His  Presentation 
in  the  Temj)le  at  forty  days  old,  onwards  to  His 
second  Presentation  as  a  '  son  of  the  law '  at  twelve 
years  old,  and  onwards  to  His  Baptism,  we  acknowledge 
an  infinite  worth  in  His  humiliation ;  in  His  perfect  obe- 
dience, active  and  passive ;  in  His  gracious  submission 
to  the  conditions  of  a  human  existence  ;  in  His  conse- 
quent experimental  sympathy  with  man  ;  in  the  moral 
and  spiritual  growth  of  His  holy  Manhood ;  in  the 
absolute  and  ideal  perfection  of  His  human  character  as 
in  the  Father's  sight,  and  in  the  atoning  virtue  and 
satisfaction  resulting  therefrom,  by  way  of  reparation 
to  the  Majesty  of  God  for  the  wrong  done  by  the  sin 
of  the  race,  which  in  His  Incarnation  He  represented 
as  its  new  Head,  the  Second  Adam,  the  Father  of 
the  World  to  come  ^ 

^  Isaiah  ix.  6.  Lowth,  who,  strangely,  has  no  note  on  this  verse, 
renders  '  The  Father  of  the  everhisting  age.'  The  Vulgate  is  Pater 
futuri  saeculi,  following  one  reading  of  the  Lxx,  which  is  strangely- 
confused  in  this  verse.  See  Dean  Payne  Smith,  Messianic  Interp.  of 
Isaiah,  Sermon  II. 


VI.]   His  special  Work  began  with  His  Baptism.  293 

Yet  all  this,  precious  and  necessary  as  it  was,  was 
but  prei:)aratory  for  the  great  work,   the  public,   the 
official  work,  which  stands  before  us  in  the  pages  of 
the  Evangelists,  and  which   is  to  be  dated  from  His 
Baptism,  Fasting,  and  Temptation.     Up  to  His  Baj)- 
tism,   He   was   Jesus   of  Nazareth.     Ba2)tized   by   the 
new  Elijah,   His   great  forerunner ;    receiving   in  His 
holy  Manhood  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  sacramen- 
tally  indicated  by  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the 
dove  (as  a  *  token  and  pledge,'  such  as  the  public  nature 
of  His  future  work  demanded,  to  the  Baptist  and  other 
bystanders,  who  should  bear  witness  of  it) ;    receiving 
this  Gift  '  for  the  office  and  work '  of  the  Messiah  to 
the  Church  of  God  ;  and  receiving  therewith  the  testi- 
mony, and  commission,  of  the  Father,  in  the  Voice  from 
Heaven,  saying.  This  is  my  heloved  Son  in  ]VJwm  I  am 
ivell  pleased,  the  Incarnate  Son  stands  forth  from  that 
moment  as  The  Christ,  the  Anointed,  He   icho  ivas 
to  come,  the  Holy  One  of  God,  the  Apostle  and  High 
Priest  of  our  Profession,  the  Messenger  of  the  New  and 
better  covenant,  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation,  our  Adam, 
our  Melchizedek,  o\ir  Moses,  our  Aaron,  our  Joshua, 
our  David,  our  Prophet,  our  Priest,  our  King,  our  one, 
our  only,  our  perfect,  our  all-sufficient  Mediator. 

141.  As  before,  it  will  be  convenient  to  consider  the 
work  of  the  Incarnate  Son  under  the  three  aspects, 
the  Prophetic,  the  Sacerdotal,  the  Regal ;  and  in  that 
order,  which  was  the  order  of  its  progressive  outward 
development.  We  premise,  however,  that  we  must  not 
too  sharply  separate  them  into  distinct  and  successive 
epochs ;  but  must  remember  that,  from  the  first,  and 


294  Throughout  He  was  Prophet,  Priest,  &  King.  [lect. 

throughout,  the  three  aspects  are  present  together,  con- 
stituting together  one  continued  and  complex  function 
vested  in  the  Person  of  the  One  Mediator.  Even  in 
the  earlier,  the  hidden,  portion  of  the  great  Life,  they 
latently  co-existed.  The  Message  of  Peace  at  His 
Birth  carried  within  itself,  germinally,  the  pledge  and 
promise  of  all  three,  as  needed  for  its  effectual  realiza- 
tion. His  Circumcision,  and  His  Name  of  Jesus, 
told  of  a  priestly  work  of  obedience  and  sacrifice,  and 
consequent  deliverance  from  sin.  The  homage  of  the 
Wise  Men  at  His  cradle  in  David's  City  acknowledged 
Him  as  King.  His  understanding  and  answers  at 
twelve  years  old  revealed,  even  to  the  Masters  in 
Israel,  the  presence  of  One  Who  stood  among  them 
rather  to  teach  than  to  learn. 

But  it  is,  of  course,  to  His  pubHc  Work,  as  the 
Anointed,  that  we  must  look  for  the  full  exhibition  of 
His  Mediation.  That  Work  dates  from  His  Baptism ; 
which,  with  its  special  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  its 
express  acknowledgment  by  the  Father  of  His  Sonship, 
was  His  Ordination.  (Compare  above,  §§  40,  42,  and 
Hebrews  iv.  14  to  v.  5,  observing  the  pointed  allusions 
to  Christ's  Sonship  in  connection  with  His  Priesthood.) 

Into  the  mystery  of  His  forty  days'  retirement  in  the 
wilderness.  His  Fasting,  and  Temptation,  we  cannot 
penetrate ;  even  as  we  cannot  penetrate  into  the  mys- 
tery of  Gethsemane.  Yet,  as  that  final  Agony,  so  these 
also,  we  cannot  doubt,  were  necessary  parts  of  His  re- 
deeming work.  In  them  also,  Son  though  He  were,  was 
He  already  learning  obedience  by  the  things  ivhich  He  suf- 
fered {Heb.  V.  8) ;  already  realizing,  in  His  human  con- 


VI.]  His  Fastings  and  Temptation.  295 

sciousness,  the  awful  greatness  of  the  work  to  which 
His  Baptism  had  called  Him ;  and,  as  ike  Man  Christ 
Jesus,  looking  in  the  face  the  now  imminent  realization 
in  Himself  of  those  old  inspired  pictures,  in  prophetic 
strain,  of  the  ideal  Servant  of  the  Lord,  Who  must  be, 
at  once,  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  and  the  glorious  King  of 
Righteousness  and  Peace.  Tempted  He  was  the  while, 
by  the  Evil  One,  who  was  fired  by  an  imperious  and 
exacting  curiosity  to  find  out  if  He,  the  circumstances 
of  whose  Birth  and  Baptism  were  so  remarkable,  were 
indeed  the  Son  of  God,  His  predestined  Vanquisher  \ 
Tempted  He  was  throughout  His  preparation  of  lonely 
communion  with  His  Heavenly  Father ;  searched 
through  and  through  with  patient  craft,  that  tried  each 
avenue  of  His  human  nature,  by  the  offered  thoughts 
and  suggestions  which  (we  are  surely  right  in  suppos- 
ing), were  summed  up  in  that  final  Temptation  of 
which  two  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  give  us  the  par- 
ticulars ;  and  which  reproduced  the  same  appeals,  to 
fleshly  appetite,  to  worldly  ambition,  and  to  spiritual 
pride,  which  have  combined  to  form  the  trial  of  man 
from  the  first  Adam  onwards. 

But  the  prince  of  this  world  came,  and  found  nothing 

in  Him. 

'  0  loving  wisdom  of  our  God ! 
When  all  was  sin  and  shame, 
A  second  Adam  to  the  fight 
And  to  the  rescue  came. 

*  Compare  chap.  xix.  of  St.  Ignatius  to  the  Ephesians,  on  the  con- 
cealment from  '  the  prince  of  this  world '  of  the  full  import  of  the 
Conception,  the  Birth,  and  the  Death  of  the  Lord,  the  three  Mysteries 
'  which  were  wrouj^ht  in  the  silence  of  God.' 


296  His   Teaching,  as  supreme  Prophet,       [lect. 

0  wisest  love !    that  flesh  and  blood 

Which  did  in  Adam  fail, 
Should  strive  afresh  against  the  foe, 

Should  strive  and  should  prevail^.' 

142.  Victorious,  and  in  the  added  strength  of  suc- 
cessful conflict,  the  presage  of  final  triumph  for  Himself 
and  for  us ;  comforted  by  the  ministry  of  angels  ;  the 
Messiah  returned,  in  the  fower  of  the  Spirit,  into  Galilee, 
and  began  His  work  as  the  supreme  Prophet,  the 
Revealer  of  the  Father.  He  taught  in  their  synagogues, 
and  preached  the  Gosj)el  of  the  Kingdom,  accepted  at 
the  first,  nay,  glorified  of  all.  His  fame  spread,  as  His 
supernatural  mission  was  evidenced  by  His  miracles  of 
healing,  as  well  as  by  the  character  and  style  of  His 
teaching.  Great  midtitudes  folloioed  Him  ;  and  so  gave 
occasion  to  the  more  blessed  antitype  of  Sinai ;  when 
He,  the 

'Lord  of  Might 
Who  to  the  tribes  on  Sinai's  height 
In  ancient  times  did  give  the  Law 
In  cloud  and  majesty  and  awe  V 

now,  with  gracious  words  from  human  lips,  spake  the 
great  New  Law  of  His  Kingdom  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount ;   announcing  His  coming  not  to  destroy,  hut  to 

^  Newman,  Dream  of  Gerontius. 

^  Compare  the  second  of  the  greater  Antiphons  which,  beginning 
with  0  Sapientia  on  Dec.  1 6,  were  said,  according  to  the  ancient  Use 
of  Sarum,  before  the  Magnificat  at  Vespers  up  to  Christmas  Eve.  It 
is  addressed  to  our  Lord,  and  runs  thus :  '  0  Adonai,  et  dux  domus 
Israel,  qui  Moysi  in  igne  flammae  rubi  apjiaruisti,  et  in  Sina  legem 
dedisti :  Veni  ad  redimendum  nos  in  brachio  extento.'  On  these  Anti- 
phons is  founded  the  beautiful  Latin  Hymn  for  Advent,  '  Veni,  veni, 
Emmanuel,'  No.  49,  in  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern. 


VI.]  on  the  Mount,  and  afterwards ;  297 

fidfil ;  deepening  and  extending  the  outer  law  of  the 
ancient  Decalogue,  once  given  to  them  of  old  time,  by 
His  supreme  authoritative  word,  But  I  say  unto  you ; 
wielding,  Himself  the  Personal  Word,  that  word  of  God 
which  is  living  and  powerfid,  and  sharjier  than  any 
two-edged  sivord,  piercing,  in  its  searching  inward  re- 
quirement, and  in  its  insistance  on  outer  practical  fruit, 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  and  of 
the  joints  and  marroiv,  and  discerning  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart  {Heh.  iv.  1 2).  In  this  we  see  a  car- 
dinal specimen  of  the  One  Mediator's  exercise  of  His 
Prophetic  office.  That  office  was  continued  in  His 
Parables  and  Discourses,  and  in  His  controversial  argu- 
ments with  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  closed,  for 
the  first  stage  of  His  work,  first,  by  those  great  escha- 
tological  predictions  which  were  uttered  on  the  Mount 
of  Olives  on  that  memorable  Tuesday  in  the  Holy 
Week  of  His  Passion,  and  in  which  He  so  strikingly 
claims  for  Himself  the  sovereign  judicial  authority 
over  all  mankind ;  and  then,  two  days  later,  by  the 
precious  words  of  comfort  and  of  promise  recorded  by 
the  pen  of  the  beloved  disciple  who  lay  on  His  bosom 
at  the  last  Supper.  As  to  all  the  verdict  of  His  hearers 
was  the  same ; — They  ivondered  at  the  precious  loords 
that  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth;  Never  man  spahe  like 
this  man ;  for  He  taught  them  as  one  that  had  authority, 
and  not  as  the  Scribes.  Thus  perfectly,  in  spoken  word 
and  in  living  cliaracter,  did  the  great  Prophet  of  Naza- 
reth of  Galilee,  the  Incarnate  Eternal  Word  and  Wis- 
dom of  the  Father,  reveal  the  Father  to  the  world,  in 
His  awful  holiness   and   in  His  '  tender  love  towards 


298  completed  by  inward  illumination.        [lect. 

mankind.'  Hence  He  could  say,  Re  that  hath  seen  Me 
hath  seen  the  Father;  and,  From  henceforth  ye  know 
Him,  and  have  seen  Him.  Thus  perfectly  did  He,  Who 
is  the  One  true  Light  of  the  ivorld,  manifest  the  One 
Father  s  Name  unto  the  men  ivhom  He  gave  Him 
out  of  the  world  {St.  John  xvii.  6),  giving  unto  them 
the  Father  s  word  (14),  the  ivords  the  Father  gave  Him 
(8) ;  so  giving  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  He  had  given 
Him;  for  this  is  life  eternal,  to  knoiv  Him  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ  Wliom  He  hath  sent  (2,  3). 

The  solemn  converse  in  the  Upper  Eoom,  or  on  the 
moonlight  walk  to  the  Garden,  closed  the  first,  the  out- 
ward stage  of  His  teaching  Prophetic  work.  Then  were 
uttered  the  last  words  of  His  which  were  ivritten  for 
our  learning,  and  whose  record  remains  to  us.  After 
His  glorification,  by  His  Death  and  Besurrection,  His 
teaching,  as  evermore  the  Great  Froinhet,  the  standing 
Light  of  the  World,  is  inward,  as  well  as  outward.  Hence- 
forward it  is  inspiration,  as  well  as  utterance ;  inspira- 
tion lighting  up  all  past  utterances  of  His,  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  in  the  New  ;  and  accompanied  by  fresh 
exegetic  utterances  as  to  the  Prophetic  Kevelation  of 
Himself  and  His  work  in  those  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures which  His  disciples  were  now,  for  the  first  time, 
enabled  thoroughly  to  understand ;  utterances  which, 
though  unrecorded,  were  of  the  very  highest  im- 
portance ;  for,  coupled  with  the  cardinal  fact  of  the 
Resurrection,  they  evidently  wrought  a  complete 
change  in  the  disciples'  conception  of  the  Person 
and  Work  of  the  Master ;  and  they  were  more- 
over (as  we  cannot  doubt)  the  true  original  source  of 


Vi,]      The  Priestly  work  of  the  Incarnate  So7i      299 

that  Christian  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  which 
lias  ever  since  been  traditionally  held  by  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  without  which  they  are  dumb  and  unin- 
telligible. Now  to  enable  them  to  grasp  that  interpre- 
tation, the  Holy  Ghost  was  given,  ivithout  '[VJiom  no 
man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord.  Mysterious 
illumination,  such  as  was  not  possible  before,  could  pass 
from  the  Christ  to  His  believing  and  loving  disciples. 
At  once  and  without  delay,  on  the  very  afternoon  of 
His  Resurrection-day,  a  new  spiritual  influence  from 
Him  is  felt  by  the  two  whose  hearts  hurned  within  them 
ivhile  He  talked  ivith  them  hy  the  ivay,  on  the  Emmaus- 
walk,  and  tvhile  He  ojjened  to  them  the  Scrij^tures,  hegin- 
ning  at  Moses  and  all  the  Froyhets,  and  exjpounding  unto 
them,  so  that  they  saw,  as  they  had  never  seen  them 
before,  the  things  concerning  Himself  {St.  Luke  xxiv.  26, 
32).  Further,  on  the  same  evening,  an  hitherto  impos- 
sible illumination  {St.  John  vii.  39)  was  vouchsafed  to 
them  together  with  the  larger  body  of  the  disciples, 
the  eleven  and  them  that  icere  zvith  them,  upon  whom 
He  sacramentally  breathed  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  opening 
their  understanding,  that  they  might  understand  the 
Scrij^tures  {St.  Luke  xxiv.   33-48.     St.  John  xx.    19- 

23). 

143.  The  fuller  outward  exhibition  of  the  Priestly 
Function  of  the  Incarnate  Word  begins  on  that  evening 
of  the  Last  Supper,  which  saw  the  close  of  the  earthly 
and  outer  form  of  His  Prophetic  Teaching.  The  sacri- 
ficial commemorative  eucharistic  ordinance  of  the  Old 
Covenant,  the  Annual  Passover,  having  been  duly  ob- 
served for  the  last  time  (or  being  in  course  of  observance. 


300  was  first  specially  exhibited  on  the       [lect. 

for  the  text  is  uncertain),  the  Messiah  vests  Himself  for 
the  exercise  of  His  office  as  the  Great  High  Friest.  He 
began  by  laying  aside  His  garments,  even  as  the  Leviti- 
cal  high-priest,  when  about  to  enter  into  the  Holy  of 
Holies  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement,  laid  aside  the 
holy  garments  which,  in  the  ordinary  exercise  of  His 
typical  ministry,  He  wore/or  glory  and  for  beauty  {Exod. 
xxviii).  He  took  a  toivel,  and  girded  himself ;  for  the 
work  He  was  about  to  undertake  was  a  work  of  cleans- 
ing. He  needed  not  to  wash  Himself,  as  those  high 
priests  ;  for  the  cleansing  was  needed  by  others,  not  by 
Him.  Eobed  in  the  perfect  purity  of  His  spotless 
humanity  (foreshadowed  by  the  linen  garments  pre- 
scribed for  the  Aaronic  high-priest  during  the  atone- 
ment service,  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness  of 
saints  (Eev.  xix.  8).  He  washed  the  Apostles'  feet. 
This  was  a  sacramental  act  of  striking  symbolic  mean- 
ing. It  carried  with  it,  for  all  but  one  who  could  not 
receive  it,  an  inward  spiritual  grace  of  absolution ;  for 
after  it  He  said,  Ye  are  clean,  hut  not  all.  Thus  were 
the  Apostles'  thoughts  directed  towards,  and  their  souls 
and  spirits  inwardly  prepared  and  fitted  for,  something 
of  high  and  heavenly  import  that  was  to  follow.  Some 
among  them  in  express  terms,  in  their  longing  to  sit  on 
His  right  hand  and  on  His  left,  at  His  Tahle,  ayid  in  His 
Kingdom;  others  virtually,  as  Thomas  when  he  said 
Let  us  also  go,  that  we  may  die  ivith  Him;  and  the  rest 
in  their  exceeding  sorroiv  at  the  announcement  that  one 
of  them  should  betray  Him,  had  declared  that  they 
were  able  to  drink  of  the  cuj)  that  He  should  drink  of, 
and  to  be  baj)tized  with  the  baj)tism  that  He  ivas  to  be 


VI,]  occasion  of  the  Last  Supper,  301 

ha2:)tizecl  ivith.  They  knew  not  what  they  said.  Only 
they  knew  they  loved  Him ;  and  He  had  chosen  them 
to  be  the  seed  and  beginning  of  that  subordinate  repre- 
sentative priesthood  in  His  Kingdom,  whereby,  in  vis- 
ible earthly  form  necessitated  by  the  cessation  of  His 
natural  Presence,  His  supreme  sole  Priesthood  as  the 
Only  Mediator  should,  through  all  generations  of  the 
Church  below,  until  He  should  come  again,  be,  instru- 
mentally  but  effectually,  exercised  and  exhibited.  So 
must  they,  and  they  alone,  in  whom  the  whole  subse- 
quent Priesthood  of  the  Catholic  Church  was  at  that 
moment  wrapped  up  and  germinally  contained,  be  associ- 
ated with  Him  in  that  solemn  act  of  manifold  depth  of 
meaning  which  was  at  once  to  follow.  To  them  now 
was  His  pledge  to  be  fulfilled.  Ye  shall  drink  indeed  of 
My  cup,  and  he  baptized  with  the  baptism  that  I  am  bap- 
tized with  {St.  Matt.  xx.  20-28.  St.  Marh  x.  39).  And 
as  they  had  been  already  taught,  by  word  and  by 
example,  that  the  inner  secret  of  priesthood  is  the  very 
lowliest  self-abasement  and  self-sacrifice,  and  meant, 
not  lordship  over  others,  but  humble  service  and  minis- 
tration for  the  welfare  and  cleansing  of  their  souls  ;  so, 
now  and  henceforward,  were  they  to  learn  also,  for 
themselves,  as  He  for  Himself,  that  the  great  work  in 
which  they  were  to  be  united  with  Him  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  world  should  be,  so  far  as  concerned  the 
world's  relation  to  them,  not  one  of  honour  but  of 
shame,  not  one  of  welcome,  but  of  opposition  ;  a  work 
of  inward  and  outward  suffering,  of  martyrdom,  of 
death ;  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  the  glory  and  the 
joy,  in  the  realized  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  for  which  they 


302  which  spiritually  marked  the  [lect. 

should  toil  and  suffer,  they  with  Him,  He  with  them, 
until  His  coming  again. 

They  sat  at  His  Table  in  the  Upper  Koom ;  but  they 
knew  not  yet  the  height  or  depth  of  suffering  or  of 
glory  for  which  they  were,  in  that  blest  Communion  of 
sacrifice  and  of  sacramental  conjunction,  knit  and  made 
one  with  Him,  for  His  and  their  one  but  manifold 
Work.  He  had  given  them  an  example.  He  had  long 
since  told  them  of  what  they  must  give  up  for  Him, 
and  of  the  cross  they  must  bear  after  Him ;  and  now 
He  said.  Verily,  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  The  servant  is  not 
greater  than  his  Lord;  neither  he  that  is  sent  greater 
than  He  that  sent  him.  It  must  be  enough  that  the 
disciple  should  he  as  his  Master,  and  the  servant  as  his 
Lord. 

The  Old,  the  Mosaic  Covenant,  the  Covenant  of  Sinai, 
was  about  to  pass  away — to  pass  away,  through  the 
obstinacy  and  unpreparedness  and  unbelief  of  its  sub- 
jects, in  blood  and  fire.  This  as  to  its  outward  and 
visible  passing,  after  forty  years  more  of  patient  waiting 
on  the  Judge's  part ;  the  goodness  of  God  continually 
calling  them  to  repentance,  and  an  Ark  of  safety  con- 
tinually being  builded  up  before  their  eyes,  in  the 
growing,  though  suffering.  Christian  Church. 

But  in  inner  spiritual  reahty  the  Old  Covenant  was 
already  passing  away,  or  passed.  Behold  your  House  is 
left  unto  you  desolate  had  been  said  already,  as  He  left 
the  temple,  for  the  last  time,  on  the  Tuesday  afternoon. 
Then  was  uttered  the  true  Mera^alvooimev  evrevBev  (Let 
us  depart  hence)  ^    This  Passover  observance,  in  which 

^  This  of  the  farewell  to  the  Temple.    The  farewell  to  the  city,  now 


VI.]  passing  away  of  the  Old  Covenant.  303 

He  had  desired,  with  great  desire  to  take  part  with  them 
before  He  suffered,  was  the  last. 

As  before  God,  and  in  the  sphere  of  inner  heavenly 
realities,  what  passed  in  the  Upper  Chamber  signalized 
the  beginning  of  the  end,  as  the  Rending  of  the  Veil 
marked  the  very  ending,  of  the  Old  Dispensation. 

Between  these  limits  of  time,  from  the  moment  when, 
the  actual  Passover-meal  now  finished,  the  Lord,  the 
true  Aaron  and  the  true  Melchizedek,  took  the  Bread, 
and  blessed  it,  and  brake  it,  and  gave  it  to  the  Disci][)les, 
saying.  Take,  eat;  This  is  My  Body  ]V]iich  is  being 
given  for  you;  and,  of  the  Cup,  This  is  My  Blood  of  the 
New  Covenant,  Wliich  is  being  shed  for  you  and  for 
many  for  the  remission  of  sins ;  down  to  the  moment 
when  He  said  It  is  finished,  and  gave  up  the  Ghost,  is 
one  great  continuous  Sacrificial  Work.  Between  those 
limits  lay,  as  a  completed  act,  the  achievement  of  man's 
salvation,  the  taking  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  the 
Atonement,  the  Reconciliation,  by  one  great  deed  of 
full,  true,  perfect  and  sufiicient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and 
satisfaction,  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  by  the 
ofiering  once  for  all  of  His  Body  and  Blood,  His  Life, 
His  whole  Self,  by  the  One  Mediator,  the  One  and  only 
High-Priest. 

144.  Or  rather,  perhaps,  we  may  think  of  it  as  one 


fixed  in  its  murderous  purpose,  and  so  virtually  doomed,  and  into 
wliifli  He  was  to  enter  no  more  save  as  a  prisoner,  is  recorded  in  the 
words  fydpea-df,  nycofifv  ivrtvBev  [Arise,  let  US  (JO  hence),  with  which  He 
left  the  Upper  Chamber  on  His  way  to  the  Kedron  and  Gethsemane. 
For  the  Mera^alvcofiep  evrtvdfv,  sce  Josephus,  Jeivish  War,  II.  xxii.  i ; 
and  VI.  V.  4  ;  also  Tacitus,  Histories,  v.  1 3. 


304     Three  stages  of  the  One  Great  Sacrifice,   [lect. 

great  drama,  in  wliich,  though  they  are  closely  con- 
nected and  form  a  continuous  whole,  three  successive 
acts  may  be  distinguished.  For,  first,  we  distinguish 
clearly  and  decisively,  by  the  light  of  the  circumstances 
themselves  and  of  the  language  and  demeanour  of  the 
Lord,  between  what  we  may  call  severally  the  active 
and  the  merely  passive  stages  of  the  Great  Sacrifice ; 
between  the  scene  in  the  Upper  Chamber,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Lord's  sufferings  at  the  hands  of  His 
enemies  from  the  moment  of  His  midnight  arrest,  on 
the  other.  Between  these  two  lies  Gethsemane,  and  its 
awful  mystery  of  Agony ;  wherein  seem  mingled  the 
mightiest  actings  of  a  resolved  self-sacrificing  Will  and 
the  severest  passive  suffering  in  inward  moral  and  spi- 
ritual anguish,  unknown,  inconceivable.  Then,  inwardly 
and  outwardly  alike,  in  the  sole  unapproachable  gran- 
deur of  His  Atoning  Love,  in  the  lonely  majesty  of  the 
absolute  submission  to  which,  for  love  of  His"  Father, 
and  of  us,  He  had  devoted  Himself,  He  ifrocZ  the  wine- 
press alone,  and  of  the  people  there  teas  none  ivith  Him 
{Isaiah  Ixiii.  3). 

The  first  of  these  three  stages  has  a  certain  marked 
completeness  in  itself.  We  must  remember  that  the 
very  constitutive  essence  of  sacrifice  is  the  inner  sacri- 
fice of  the  Will,  the  Self,  in  absolute  surrender  and 
devotion  to  the  Will  of  God,  whatever  that  may  be. 
This  inner  sacrifice  is  kindled  only  by  the  heaven- 
sent fire  of  a  supreme  love  of  God.  Without  that  no  outer 
sacrifice,  of  however  severe  suffering,  avails  anything. 
For  though  I  hestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and 
though  I  give  my  body  to  he  hurned,  and  have  not  love. 


VI.]         CiiRisrs  Sacrifice  of  His  Will  grew         305 

ii  f^'ojiteth  me  nothing.  The  willing  submission  to  out- 
wardly imposed  suffering,  coming  from  the  act  of  others, 
of  God,  or  man,  or  evil  spirit,  is  germinally  contained 
(and  this  whether  the  suffering  to  follow  be  fully  and 
consciously  foreseen  or  no),  in  the  mner  sacrifice  of  the 
will  which  pfoes  before.  That  inner  sacrifice  is  made, 
and  renewed,  on  occasion,  as  God  calls  for  it,  in  perfect 
love  to  God  ;  and  so  (for  perfect  love  involves  this),  in 
perfect  trust  in  God ;  in  the  absolute  confidence  that 
nothing  can  befal,  or  be  laid  upon,  the  self-sacrificing 
spirit  but  by  His  permission ;  and  that  all  must  turn 
to  His  praise  and  glory  in  the  furtherance  of  His  great 
purposes  of  Love,  and  in  the  moral  perfecting  of  the 
spirit  itself.  Such  a  self-sacrificing  Will  belonged  to 
our  Lord  throughout  His  whole  life.  Yet  were  there 
mysterious  crises  of  its  higher  development  through 
conflict ;  as,  for  example,  in  His  lonely  trial  in  the 
wilderness;  and  once  more  when  the  icaipog  (season)  until 
which,  after  His  Temptation,  the  Devil  dejjarted  from 
Him,  came  round  again,  on  the  near  approach  of  His 
Passion  and  of  the  hour  of  the  ^oiver  of  darkness.  To 
these  occasions  we  may  (I  think)  be  right  in  adding  a 
third,  not  obscurely  intimated  in  the  Gospel  record  as 
occurring  between  them ;  namely,  in  close  connection 
with  the  Lord's  Transfiguration,  That  event,  which 
happened  when,  as  at  other  times.  He  was  spending  the 
whole  night  in  solitary  communion  with  His  Father, 
was  signalized  by  not  only  the  temporary  revelation  of 
His  inner  glory,  but  also  by  the  appearance  of  the  two 
great  Saints  of  the  Old  Covenant,  the  representatives 
of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets,  who  spahe  of  His  decease 

X 


3o6  throughout  His  whole  life,  and  was,      [lect. 

ivliicli  He  should  accom'plish  at  Jerusalem;  and  by  the 
renewed  testimony  of  the  Voice  from  Heaven  to  His 
vmiqne  Sonship,  as  the  Beloved.  Further,  in  each  of 
the  Synoptic  Gospels,  the  narrative  of  the  Transfigura- 
tion is  immediately  both  preceded  and  followed  by 
marked  predictions  of  His  Sufferings,  Cross,  and  Death. 
In  the  same  immediate  connection  Saint  Luke  (ix.  51) 
writes,  It  came  to  ])ass,  when  the  time  ivas  come  thai  He 
should  he  received  up,  He  steadfastly  set  His  face  to  go  to 
Jerusalem;  and  Saint  Mark  (x.  32),  that  as  they  were 
in  the  tvay  going  up  to  Jerusalem,  Jesus  ivent  hefore 
them :  and  they  were  amazed ;  and  as  they  folloived  they 
were  afraid.  With  the  foreknowledge  of  the  inevitable 
suffering  which  was  to  be  the  price  of  man's  redemp- 
tion, with  the  ever-increasing  pressure  of  that  fore- 
knowledge, grew,  in  like  ratio,  in  the  human  con- 
sciousness of  the  Saviour,  the  stedfast  purpose  of 
unlimited  self-sacrifice.  Yet  were  these  earlier  oc- 
casions but  so  many  steps  which  led  to  the  Upper 
Room,  as  surely  as  the  next  steps  thence  were  to 
Gethsemane,  and  thence  to  Calvary.  Tuesday  had 
seen  the  solemn  close  of  His  teaching,  the  last  of  His 
warnings  to  His  people,  as  the  great  Prophet  Who  was 
to  come.  Wednesday's  plot  of  the  wicked  husbandmen 
with  the  traitor  disciple  for  the  murder  of  the  Son  and 
Heir  was  not  unknown  to  Him.  He  entered  the  Upper 
Chamber  with  the  shadow  of  that  treachery  on  His 
heart.  He  knew  that  His  hour  was  come  :  and  so  He 
said,  With  desire  have  I  desired  to  eat  this  Passover  ivith 
you  hefore  I  suffer.  His  Passion  was  already  at  the 
door. 


VI,]        actively^  completed  in  the  Upper  Rooniy       307 

It  is  tliis  that  gives  its  deejo,  its  undying,  its  immense 
significance  to  His  every  act,  every  word,  every  gesture, 
on  that  solemn  night.  It  is  this  that  discloses  the  real 
meaning  of  His  exhibition  of  Himself  as  our  Great 
Sigh  Priest^  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant,  when 
He  blessed  the  Bread  and  Wine,  and,  so  blessing  them, 
conseciated  them  to  be  the  sacred  symbols  of  His  Body 
and  His  Blood,  then  and  there,  in  the  inner  and  essen- 
tial reality  of  His  self-devoting  will,  given,  hroken,  and 
shed,  as  the  sacrifice  and  token  of  the  New  Covenant, 
for  the  remission  of  sins.  It  was,  in  the  highest  spiri- 
tual sense,  a  Sacrificial  Act.  It  carried  in  itself  all  that 
followed  ;  and  so  it  was  complete  in  its  acceptableness  ; 
even  as  was  Abraham's  surrender  of  his  child  of  promise, 
and  Isaac's  surrender  of  himself  for  a  whole  burnt-offerins:, 
though  not  outwardly  consummated  in  blood.  Abra- 
ham, by  that  act — an  act  loaded  with  deepest  typical 
meaning — scared  not  his  own  son,  but  freely  gave  him, 
a  willing  victim,  to  the  death,  from  ivhence  also  he 
received  him  in  a  figure  {Heh.  xi.  19).  The  father's 
sacrifice  was  in  the  long  three  days'  sad  journey  to 
Moriah,  and  in  the  taking  (it  needed  not  the  use)  of 
the  knife  to  slay  his  son.  The  sacrifice  of  the  son  was 
in  his  willing  submission,  whereby  he  was  bound  and 
laid  iij)on  the  altar,  itjjon  the  ivood.  Even  so  was 
Christ's  Body  given,  and  His  Blood  shed,  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins,  when,  by  His  own  act,  the  Bread  was 
broken  and  the  Wine  poured  out. 

Compare  Archbishop  Thomson,  in  Aids  to  Faith,  Essay 
VIII.    On  The  death  of  Clind:— 

'  When  He  speaks  of  "  My  Blood  of  the  New  Cove- 
X   2 


3o8  the  scene  of  a  true  Sacrifice,  [lect. 

nant,"  no  doubt  tlie  word  Sacrifice  is  dispensed  with  ;  but 
there  must  be  very  few,  we  should  hope,  who  cannot 
discern  in  such  words  the  "  sacrificial  allusion."  '     (I.) 

Again,  '  It  cannot  be  denied  (we  might  almost  say 
that  before  Mr,  Jowett  it  never  was  denied)  that  the 
words  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  speak  most 
distinctly  of  a  sacrifice.  "  Drink  ye  all  of  this,  for  this 
is  My  blood  of  the  new  covenant/'  or,  to  follow  St.  Luke, 
"the  new  covenant  in  My  blood."  We  are  carried  back 
by  these  words  to  the  first  covenant,  to  the  altar  with 
twelve  pillars,  and  the  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings 
of  oxen,  and  the  blood  of  the  victims  sprinkled  on  the 
altar  and  on  the  peoj^le,  and  the  words  of  Moses  as  he 
sprinkled  it :  "  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which 
the  Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning  all  these  words  " 
[Exod.  xxiv.)  No  interpreter  has  ever  failed  to  draw 
from  these  passages  the  true  meaning :  "  When  My 
sacrifice  is  accomplished.  My  blood  shall  be  the  sanction 
of  the  new  covenant."  The  word  sacrifice  is  wanting  ; 
but  sacrifice  and  nothing  else  is  described.  And  the 
words  are  no  mere  figure  used  for  illustration,  and  laid 
aside  when  they  have  served  that  turn,  "  Do  this  in 
remembrance  of  Me."  They  are  the  words  in  which  the 
Church  is  to  interpret  the  act  of  Jesus  to  the  end  of  time. 
They  are  reproduced  exactly  by  St.  Paul  (i  Cor.  xi.  25). 
Then,  as  now,  Christians  met  together,  and  by  a  solemn 
act  declared  that  they  counted  the  blood  of  Jesus  as  a 
sacrifice  wherein  a  new  covenant  was  sealed;  and  of  the 
blood  of  that  sacrifice  they  partook  by  faith,  professing 
themselves  thereby  willing  to  enter  the  covenant  and  be 
sprinkled  with  the  blood."    (I.  2.) 

Communion  followed;  and,  upon  that,  the  solemn  typi- 
cal High-Priestly  Intercession,  the  Lord's  own  Prayer 
for  His  Church  so  long  as  it  should  be  '  militant  here  in 
earth.'  In  that  prayer  He  expressly  says,  'I  have  finished 
the  work  that  Thou  gavest  Me  to  do.'    The  active  Sacrifice 


VI.]         passively  cojiswnmated  in  the  Agony,         309 

was,  at  that  moment,  made  and  accepted,  or  such  language 
could  not  have  Leen  used.  In  what  remamed,  at  least 
from  the  Arrest  onwards,  He  was  rather  passive  than 
active.  Hence  His  silent  submission,  whereby,  unless 
when  forced  to  speak,  lilie  a  sheep  before  her  shearers  is 
dumh,  so  He  opened  not  His  mouth.  Hence,  in  the  final 
moment,  the  noticeable  use  of  the  passive  form  It  is 
Jinished. 

145.  At  the  entrance  of  the  Olive-Garden  we  rever- 
ently pause.  To  the  endurance  of  all  that  might 
await  Him  there  He  had  submitted  Himself  already  in 
the  Self-oblation  of  the  Upper  Chamber.  There  was 
the  mysterious  conflict,  with  strong  crying  and  tears ; 
but  it  was  not  the  struggle  of  resistance ;  it  was  the 
struggle  of  the  resolved  and  devoted  Will,  enforcing 
itself  and  its  imperious  determination  on  the  natural 
reluctance  of  the  lower  elements  of  a  genuine  human 
nature,  whose  very  perfectness  and  purity,  in  body, 
soul,  and  spirit,  could  only  give  it  a  more  sensitive 
susceptibility  to  suffering,  and  a  stronger  aversion  to 
both  the  humiliation  of  death  and  the  deeper  humilia- 
tion and  degradation  of  a  close,  though  it  were  but  a 
vicarious,  contact  with  sin,  when  on  Him  loere  laid 
the  iniquities  of  us  all.  We  watched  with  Him  in 
spirit,  as,  a  few  weeks  ago,  the  awful  night  came 
round  \  More  inwardly  touching  than  even  the  Cross 
itself  we  found  that  sight  on  which  our  spirits  gazed. 
In  life's  hardest  battles,  in  the  fiercest  soul-conflicts, 
when  the  struggle  is  that  of  a  sin-weakened  will 
against  a  nature   not   merely  reluctant,  but   actively 

*  This  Lecture  was  delivered  in  Easter-tide. 


3IO  and  in  the  Passion,  of  the  One  [lect. 

rebellious,  in  hours  when  prayer  alone  with  God  is  our 
only  stay,  it  is  to  the  thought  of  Gethsemane ;  it  is  to 
the  remembrance  of  Him,  Who  under  the  Easter  moon, 
beneath  the  gnarled  olive-trunks,  bowed  Himself  to  the 
dust  for  us,  that  we  turn  for  strength  ;  knowing  that 
in  Him,  the  sayne  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever,  we 
have  not  an  High  Priest  that  canyiot  he  touched  with 
the  feeling  of  our  infirmities,  hut  was  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  ive  are,  yet  ivithout  sin. 

'  To  the  still  wrestlings  of  the  lonely  heart 
He  doth  impart 
The  virtue  of  His  midnight  agony.' 

(Christian  Year,    Wednesday  before  Easter) 

Wherefore  we  pray,  '  By  Thine  agony  and  bloody 
sweat,  Good  Lord,  deliver  us;'  or,  more  touching  still, 
with  our  Greek  brethren,  At'  ayvMo-Tociv  crov  iraOrjixaroov, 
'VvaaL  n/^ag,  Kvpte  (By  Thine  unknown  sufferings.  Good 
Lord,  deliver  us). 

146.  In  the  third  stage  of  His  one  great  Sacrifice, 
viz.  from  His  arrest  to  His  giving  up  the  ghost,  the 
great  High-Priest  was  merely  passive  in  the  hands  of 
His  enemies ;  patiently  submissive  to  whatever,  in 
malice  or  in  ignorance,  Jew  or  Gentile,  rulers  or  rabble, 
governors  or  soldiers,  inflicted  upon  Him  in  His  most 
holy  Flesh,  which  He  gave  for  the  life  of  the  Woi'ld. 
That  is,  He  was  passive  outwardly.  Inwardly,  the 
active  energy  of  His  will  was  working  throughout ; 
for  only  when  He  willed  He  hoived  His  Head,  and 
gave  up  the  ghost.  None  (ovSelg)  took  His  life  from 
Him,  hut  He  laid  it  down  of  Himself.     He  had  poiver 


VI.]  Prophet,  P^'iest^  and  King.  3 1 1 

to   lay    it    down,  and  He  had  j)Ower  to  taJce  it  again 
(St.  John  X.  18).     Nay,  even  in  uttered  word  and  act, 
in  this  last  extremest  stage  of  His  voluntary  humilia- 
tion and  self-abnegation,  did  the  One  Mediator  show 
on  occasion  His  latent  royal  and  divine  character.     His 
inalienaLle  Majesty  was   there    when,  as   soon  as   He 
said  /  am  He   unto   the    noisy   multitude,  whom  He 
rose  from  His  knees  in  Gethsemane  to  meet,  they  ivent 
backward,  and  fell  to  the  ground  (xviii.  6).    Before  Caia- 
phas,  and  before  Pilate,  He  acknowledged,  in  differing 
but  appropriate  ways.  His  royal  dignity  as  the  Son  of 
God.     To  both  also  He  indicated  His   prophetic  cha- 
racter.    When  adjured  by  Caiaphas,  He  answered,  in 
language    that    involved    His    claim  to   the  Messianic 
dignity  of  Prophet  and  of  King,  that  He  was  the  Christ; 
nay,   He   was  the  Son   of  God;    and  He   foretold  His 
sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  j^ower,  and  His   coming, 
in  their  time,  in  the  clouds  of  Heaven.     To  Pilate  He 
admitted  that  He  was  a  King,  though  His  Kingdom 
was  not  of  this  loorld ;  and,  further,  that  He  came  into 
this  world  to  hear  witness  to  the  truth.    To  the  daushters 
of  Jerusalem,  on  the  Via  Dolorosa,  He  prophesied   of 
the    days    of  judgment  that  were  coming,  lohen  men 
should  hegin  to  say  to  the  mountains.  Fall  on  us,  and  to 
the  hills.  Cover  us.     As  Priest  He  interceded  for  the 
Gentile  soldiers  who  nailed  Him  to  the  Cross,  Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  knoiv  not  ivhat  they  do.     As  King 
He  listened  graciously  to  the  prayer  of  the  Penitent 
Thief,  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  comest  in  Thy 
kingdom.     But  as  regards  His  present  relation  to  the 
Jewish  and  Gentile  powers,  in  whose  hands  He  was  a 


312  The  Death  of  Christ.  [lect. 

helpless  victim,  He  was,  in  this  stage,  simply  passive, 
until  He  willed  to  say.  It  is  finished. 

147.  With  these  words,  being  put  to  death  in  the 
flesh,  hut  preserved  alive  in  His  human  spirit  (i  St. 
Peter  iii.  18),  He  passed  into  the  vast  populous  realms 
of  the  Unseen  ;  submitting  still,  since  He  willed  hj 
the  grace  of  God  to  taste  death  for  every  man,  to  that 
abnormal  and  contradictory  separation  of  soul  and  body 
which  is  the  wages  of  sin,  the  *  debt '  of  sinful  nature, 
the  work  of  him  who  was  a  man-slayer  [avOpwiroKTovog) 
from  the  beginning ;  and  which,  in  itself  a  degradation 
and  disgrace  for  that  human  nature  which  was  origin- 
ally made  in  the  image  of  the  Living  God,  was  an  in- 
finitely greater  humiliation  for  Him  in  Whom  was  no 
sin.  Yet  this  too  He  willed.  This  too  was  wrapped 
up  in  the  Offering  of  the  Cup  in  the  Upper  Chamber, 
when  He  poured  out  His  Soid  unto  death  (for  the 
blood  is  the  Ife),  and  so  was  numhered  with  the 
transgressors,  accepting  their  lot ;  and  so  bare  the  sin 
of  many  and  made  intercession  for  the  transgressors 
(Isaiah  liii.).  This  was  involved  in  His  Incarnation, 
since  sin  had  entered  into  His  world.  Forasmuch 
as  the  children  are  partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  He  also 
Himself  likeivise  took  part  of  the  same,  that  through 
death  He  might  destroy  Him  that  had  the  power  of 
death,  that  is  the  Devil,  and  deliver  them  who  through 
fear  of  death  were  all  their  lifetime  sidjject  to  bondage 
{Hebreivs  ii.). 

The  state  of  death  was,  while  it  lasted,  a  pro- 
longation of  His  voluntary  humiliation ;  but  it  was  a 
necessary  part  of  the  work  of  our  Kedemption,  which 


VI.]  TJie   Unseen  State.  313 

He  had  undertaken.  For  it  was  a  time,  we  cannot 
doubt,  of  most  important  action  on  the  part  of  the 
One  Mediator,  during  His  sojourn  in  the  unknown 
dwelling-place  of  that  vast  and  growing  '  majority ' 
(0/  TrXf/oi'e?)  of  those  imperishable  souls  of  men  whom 
He  came  to  save. 

148.  The  veil  that  hangs  between  us  and  that  great 
unseen  M^orld,  Sheol,  or  Hades,  or  Paradise,  however 
Holy  Scripture  designates  it,  in  whole  or  in  part,  has 
scarcely  been  lifted,  even  in  the  recorded  words  of  the 
Lord  Himself  What  the  rapt  Apostle  saw  or  heard 
in  Paradise  he  expressly  tells  us  it  is  not  'possible  for 
man  to  utter  (2  Cor.  xii.  4).  Only  the  broadest  out- 
lines are  revealed  to  us.  But  these  are  revealed ;  and 
so  are  fitting  subjects  for  our  earnest  thought  and 
meditation.  The  continued,  uninterrupted,  conscious  ex- 
istence of  each  human  spirit,  disembodied,  but  not  there- 
fore necessarily  disassociated  altogether  from  matter  (as 
is,  perhaps,  usually,  but  superficially,  assumed  to  be 
the  case),  nor  without  some  envelope  or  vehicle,  how- 
ever subtle,  of  its  living  essential  vital  forces,  which 
gives  it  outer  form  and  locality  and  individualization  ; 
sensibility,  perhaps  greatly  intensified,  to  pain  and 
pleasure,  inward  and  outward,  mental  and  physical ; 
continued  memory,  and  power  of  utterance  and  con- 
verse ;  recognition  of  others  in  the  same  mysterious 
abode,  and,  consequent  upon  such  power  of  converse 
and  such  recognition,  the  possibility,  at  least,  of  social 
life ;  knowledge  of  what  has  passed  on  earth  since 
their  decease,  by  whatever  means  conveyed,  direct,  or 
throusfh  intercourse  with  later  comers  ;  interest  in  those 


314  No  pi'obation  in  [lect. 

left  beliind ;  hope  or  fear,  for  them  and  for  itself — these 
surely  must  be  allowed  by  the  believer  in  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures  to  be  general  features,  clearly  enough 
revealed,  of  the  condition  of  all  departed  souls  in  the 
great  Unseen ;  which,  we  shall  do  well  to  remember,  is 
not  so  much  a  '  future  state,'  (except  to  each  one  of  us 
who  are  still  in  the  flesh,)  but  is  the  actual  present 
state  of  the  vast  mass  of  mankind.  Further,  if  faith 
must  insist  that  thus  much  must  be  conceded,  it  must 
also  follow,  from  the  continuance  of  essential  life,  with 
memory  and  power  of  converse,  that  there  is  also  moral, 
mental,  spiritual  movement,  growth,  development ;  and 
this  aided  and  quickened  by  a  nearer  perception  of 
spiritual  things,  consequent  upon  the  introduction  of 
the  soul  to  great  hitherto  unseen  realities,  simul- 
taneously with  its  removal  from  this  present  life,  and 
its  being  unclothed  of  that  grosser  frame  of  flesh  and 
blood  by  which  it  was  in  relation  with  this  visible 
world. 

149.  There  is,  indeed,  after  the  term  of  this  earthly 
life  is  reached,  no  further  probation  ;  no  opportunity  of 
repentance  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  that  is,  of 
inner  change  of  mind  from  the  love  of  evil  and  the  life 
of  sin  to  the  love  of  good  and  of  God,  and  the  life  of 
earnest  endeavour  after  holiness.  The  whole  tenour  of 
Holy  Scripture  is  against  so  unfounded  and  dangerous 
a  supposition ;  and  implies  that,  however  it  may  be 
only  as  yet  in  germ,  and  that  undiscernible  by  any 
but  the  all-searching  Eye,  the  final  direction  and  de- 
termination of  the  moral  choice  is  really  taken,  for 
good  or  evil,  within  the  allotted  limits  of  the  present 


VI.]  the  Unseen  State;  315 

life.  Natural  moral  science,  based  on  observation  and 
experience,  apart  from  revelation,  points  unhesitat- 
ingly to  a  like  conclusion ;  and  even  heathen  philo- 
sophy fully  recognises  the  solemn  significance  of  life, 
in  its  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  moral  choice,  and 
for  the  growth  of  habitual  moral  attitude  and  tend- 
ency into  finally  settled  determination  of  character. 
Further,  it  should  be  remembered,  as  bearing  upon  our 
view  of  this  highly  important  question,  that,  ideally 
and  in  the  original  purpose  of  man's  Creator,  his  Moral 
Governor,  and  Judge,  the  intermediate  state,  of  sepa- 
ration of  soul  and  body,  is  abnormal  and  unintended. 
That  state  is  a  dislocation  of  the  true  continuity  of 
man's  full  and  complete  life,  a  strange  thing,  the  re- 
sult of  sin,  a  deflection,  however  overruled  for  good 
by  the  manifold  resources  of  the  infinite  mercy  of 
God.  Man,  as  originally  created,  was  created  for  Life, 
not  for  Death  ;  for  life  in  his  oXoKXrjpov  (whole  con- 
stitution) of  body,  soul,  and  spirit  (i  Thess.  v.  23) ;  for 
life  upon  this  earth,  wliich,  under  whatever  altered 
conditions  of  glory  and  of  beauty,  when  its  travail-time 
is  over,  and  it  shall  have  been  delivered  from  tJie 
londage  of  corruftion,  we  have  no  real  reason  to  doubt 
will  always  be  man's  dwelling-place.  But  he  was 
created,  and  that,  as  we  have  seen  (jj  48,  71)  neces- 
sarily, in  a  state  of  probation ;  and  it  is  obviously 
fitting,  and  almost,  we  may  say,  required  by  the  very 
idea  of  probation,  that  it  should  come  at  the  opening 
of  his  endless  career,  and  begin,  as  it  does  begin,  as 
soon  as  free  will  and  power  of  moral  choice  are  felt 
within  him.     But  if  the  originally-intended  sphere  and 


3i6  only  development  and  progress  [lect. 

stage  of  this  probation  be  his  natural  earthly  life  in  the 
flesh,  and  the  natural  condition  and  circumstances  of 
human  social  life  common  to  him  and  his  fellows ; 
and  if,  in  fact,  his  very  probation  lies  in,  and  is  con- 
stituted by,  that  condition,  those  circumstances;  then 
it  would  seem  to  follow — apart  from  the  observed  de- 
cisive and  often  (apparently)  unalterable  effects  result- 
ing, and  that  often  very  early,  from  our  probation,  as 
we  know  it,  in  the  present  condition  of  our  life — that 
an  extension,  or  a  renewal,  of  probation  in  a  state  of 
being  so  strange,  so  different,  so  unintended,  is  not  to 
be  expected,  and  would  be  unavailing ;  especially  when 
it  is  considered  that  that  state  of  being  is  itself  a  penal 
state,  a  consequence  of  sin. 

150.  On  the  other  hand,  although  this  be  so,  and 
although  we  have  no  ground  for  looking  for  further 
probation  on  the  other  side  the  grave,  nor  for  re- 
newed opportunities  of  an  inner  vital  change  from 
darkness  to  light,  from  death  to  life,  in  the  moral 
centre  of  our  being,  the  conscious  will ;  we  may,  we 
must,  believe — since  we  believe  in  the  uninterrupted 
continuance  of  the  real  life,  and  in  the  carrying  over 
the  grand  total  result  of  this  life  across  the  change  of 
death  into  the  Unseen  state — we  must  beHeve  in  the 
continuance  of  progress,  development,  and  growth ;  for 
life,  in  every  or  in  any  sense  of  the  word,  implies  them ; 
only  it  is  a  development  in  the  direction  already  de- 
cisively taken. 

In  these  considerations  we  see  the  opening  for  a 
great  work  of  tlie  Fatlier  of  spirits  on  the  countless 
millions  of  millions  of  the  human  souls  for  whom  Christ 


VI.]  in  ihc  direction  already  taken.  317 

died  ;  a  work  to  be  carried  on  through  Him,  the  One 
Mediator,  in  Whom  and  through  Whom  and  for  Whom, 
as  the  Image  of  God,  those  souls  were  made,  and  Who 
died  for  them  that  He  might,  if  they  do  not  defy  Him, 
restore  that  image  within  tliem. 

God  alone  knows  the  determinate  moral  condition 
and  capacity  of  each  of  the  souls  that  He  has  made,  at 
the  moment  when  He  summons  it  into  the  Unseen. 
We  may  be  quite  sure  that  their  moral  conditions  and 
capacities  vary  infinitely;  that  is,  in  degree  ;  though  of 
kind  and  quality  there  can  be,  in  the  last  resort,  but 
two.  We  may  be  quite  sure  that,  in  the  placing  of 
each  on  this  or  that  side  of  the  dividing  line — the 
acceptance  or  the  rejection  of  God,  so  far  as  He  has, 
in  various  ways  and  degrees  for  each,  presented  Him- 
self to  each  in  the  opportunities  of  earthly  life — the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  do  absolutely  right,  with 
absolutely  perfect  knowledge,  with  infinitely  perfect 
and  tender  discriminating  love.  Moral  capacity — so 
awfully  different,  so  infinitely  varied,  are  men's  lots, 
men's  opportunities,  in  life — may  be  present,  though  in 
the  very  lowest  conceivable  degree,  the  merest  germ 
of  as  yet  unextinguished  possibility.  The  living  spark 
may  be  there,  though  it  defy  our  microscopes.  God 
can  discover,  and  will  tend  it.  We  may  trust  Him 
never  to  hreak  the  bruised  reed,  nor  quench  the  smoking 
flax.  We  may  trust  Him  to  fan  it  into  a  living  flame 
of  love,  and  to  place  it  in  the  most  favourable  circum- 
stances for  its  development.  What  the  process  may 
be,  or  the  time  taken  up  in  it,  we  cannot,  need  not, 
guess;  but  of  the  fact   itself  we  must  be  absolutely 


3i8  The  work  of  the  One  Mediator  [lect. 

certain  ;  and  of  the  loving  agency  therein  of  the  Divine 
n  0*^07(070?,  the  One  most  gracious  Mediator,  breathing, 
from  Himself,  upon  each  morally  living  soul,  as  each 
can  bear  them,  and  together  with  whatever  needful 
discipline  of  inward  or  outward  pain,  the  renewing  in- 
fluences, the  freshening  dew,  of  His  own  Holy,  patient, 
loving,  creative  and  re-creative  Spirit,  the  Lord,  the 
Life-Giver. 

151.  We  may  joyfully  believe  that  untold  millions 
of  waiting  souls  in  God's  safe  keeping,  with  various  de- 
grees of  spiritual  capacity,  each  very  precious  in  God's 
sight,  and  part  of  His  Son's  reward,  from  all  the  races 
of  mankind,  within  God's  special  covenants  and  from 
outside  them  ^ ;  were  the  subjects,  whether  consciously 
longing  and  hoping  for  it  or  not,  of  some  such  grace 
and  mercy,  when  the  one  white  and  spotless  Soul  from 
among  the  children  of  men,  the  Soul  of  Jesus,  passed 
from  the  Cross  of  shame  to  the  Paradise  of  joy  ;  to 
be  followed  thither  so  quickly  by  one  surely  accepted, 
yet  as  surely  most  undeveloped,  soul,  from  the  cross 
beside  His  own. 

In  that  vast  realm,  we  may  be  well  assured,  are 
many  mansions,  many  abodes  of  exact  fitness  to  their 
destined  occupants  ;  abodes  which  are,  for  each,  their 
own  ^lace.  Lito  one  portion,  whose  name  of  Para- 
dise recalls  man's  first  happy  state,  Christ's  Soul 
passed  at  once,  carried  (it  may  be)  by  angels ;  there  to 
be  recognised  by  the  expectant  faithful,  from  Abel,  its 
first  inhabitant,  to  Joseph  of  Nazareth,  and  the  Baptist, 
and  others  who  had  known  the  Lord  in  the  flesh.  In 
^  See  St.  Matthew  viii.  10-12,  and  St.  Luke  xiii.  28-30. 


VI.]  upon  souls  in  the  Unseen  State.  319 

tlieir  place  of  peace  and  rest  and  refreshment  they  saw 
Him  Whom  they  had  beHeved  in,  for  whose  coming 
they  had  longed ;  and  they  were  glad.  They  saw  the 
great  Prophet  of  whose  coming  Moses  had  foretold ; 
and  whose  very  presence  was  a  fresh  revelation  to 
them  of  God  and  of  His  love,  and  of  the  gathering 
mercy  of  His  gracious  dealings  with  them.  They  saw 
the  great  High  Priest  Whom  their  old  ritual  had  fore- 
shadowed ;  the  Lamh  of  God  Whom  their  sacrifices 
had  prefigured,  and  Who  had  now  taken  aivay  the  sin 
of  the  world.  They  recognised  their  King,  the  royal 
David,  fresh  from  the  overthrow  of  the  great  Goliath ; 
and  they  knew  that  His  appearance  there  was  but  the 
presage  of  still  greater  triumphs  for  Him  and  them. 

152.  Beyond  this  we  have  at  least  one  highly  sig- 
nificant intimation  of  another  work,  in  another  portion 
of  the  great  Unseen,  which  may,  very  probably,  be 
taken,  like  so  many  other  things  in  Holy  Scripture 
(which  cannot  tell  us  everything),  as  a  typical  and 
suggestive  example  and  specimen.  Beyond,  below,  the 
Paradise  of  God,  Christ  descended  ad  inferos.  We  are 
not  to  understand  this,  and  probably  those  who  placed 
it  in  the  Creed  never  so  meant  it,  of  the  Hell  of  Fire 
{t]  yeevva  tov  Trupoi);  prepared  (that  is,  originally),  not  for 
man,  but  for  the  Devil  and  his  angels.  Of  the  portion 
of  any  human  beings  in  that  nothing  is  said  until  after 
the  General  Resurrection  and  the  Judgment.  But,  short 
of  that.  Saint  Peter,  in  a  well-known  passage  (i  Pet. 
iii.  18),  as  to  whose  meaning  surely  Bishop  Pearson  is 
wrong  and  Bishop  Horsley  right,  speaks  of  the  ^uXaV? 
{prison,  or  safe  heeping),  in  which  were  detained  the 


320  The  case  of  the  Antediluvians.  [lect. 

souls  of  the  Antediluvians  who   had  perished  in  the 
Flood,   when    it    overtook   tlie  ivorld   of  the   ungodly; 
among  whom,  at  the  last,  they  were  found,  notwith- 
standing long  previous  warning,  ivhen  once  the  long- 
sulfering    of    God    ivaited    in   the    days    of  Noah,    the 
preacher    of  righteousness,  while    the  Ark    ivas    a  pre- 
joaring.     They  were  outside  the  Ark  of  safety  by  their 
own    act.     They  perislied   by  an   awful   visitation    of 
judgment ;  which  was  the  end  of  their  world.     They 
had  no  share  in  the  New  Heaven  and  the  New  Earth, 
over  which   the  Dove   flitted,  and   across  which   the 
Kainbow  of  mercy  shone,  when  the  waters  were  abated, 
and  the  purpose  of  the  Ark  was  served.     Yet  to  them 
the  human  spirit  of  Christ  ivent  and  jpreached — rather, 
His  own  Herald,  He  went  and  proclaimed  {eKi^pu^e) — 
can  we  doubt  1  a  proclamation  of  mercy.     The  destruc- 
tion of  the  Jlesh,  the  awful  and  sudden  judgment,  from 
which  there  was  no   longer  any  possible   escape,  may 
have  been  the  very  means  of  compelling,  at  the  last, 
that  repentant  turning  to  God  which  should  preserve, 
or  rekindle,  ere  yet  too  late,  the  spark  of  life  within 
them,  and  so  render  it  possible  for  their  sjiirits  to  he 
saved,  albeit  we  know  not  in  how  for  ever  diminished 
glory    and    beauty,   in    the    day    of-  the    Lord    Jesus 
(i  Cor.  V.  5).      In    what   necessary   discipline   of  not 
quite  despairing  uncertainty  and  expectation  they  had 
"waited  those  long  ages ;  what  spring  of  renewed  hfe 
and   love   the    visit    and   the  proclamation  of  Christ, 
turning  hope  into  certainty,  had  brought  them ;  what 
further    trainino-  should    lead    their  and   others'   souls 

o 

upwards,  in  the  intermediate  time  tiU  Christ  shall  come 


VI.]  Increase  of  peace  and  joy  321 

again,  to  close,  as  He  then  opened,  this  present  Dis- 
pensation, we  cannot  say.  But  the  thought  of  this 
passage  rightly  apprehended  must  (we  may  humbly 
submit)  widen  the  range  of  our  conceptions  with 
reference  to  the  manifold  variety,  the  unfailing  yet 
varied  mercy,  and  the  inconceivably  vast  scale,  of 
God's  dealings,  as  their  moral  Governour,  their  All- 
loving  Father,  with  the  infinite  variety  of  human  souls, 
in  all  their  infinitely  varied  relations  to  Himself,  that 
do  not,  with  final  defiance,  refuse  His  mercy  and  re- 
nounce Himself. 

153.  That  an  increase  of  light  and  peace  and  joy,  in 
possession  and  in  hope,  was  diffused  through  His  un- 
seen Kingdom  for  all  who  were  able,  and  as  each  was 
able,  to  receive  it,  we  cannot  doubt.  It  has  been  so 
for  His  believing  people  on  earth,  even  while  they  are 
still  in  the  flesh,  and  are  in  heaviness  through  manifold 
temptations.  Saint  Paul,  looking  forward  to  his  rest 
in  Paradise,  whose  joys,  disclosed  in  his  rapture,  he 
coidd  remember  with  longing  though  he  could  not 
litter  them  in  words,  could  desire  to  deixirt,  and  to 
he  ivith  Christ,  as  far  better  than  even  his  loving  and 
assured  communion  with  Him  in  this  life  ;  and  so  as 
making  death,  for  him,  a  gain.  By  this  we  know 
that  whether  in  itself  (that  is,  because  of  some  objec- 
tively closer  spiritual  Presence  of  the  Lord  to  faithful 
souls  in  the  Unseen)  or  by  reason  of  some  change  for 
the  better,  in  themselves,  or  in  their  removal  from 
worldly  distractions  and  temptations,  they  are  in  closer 
comniunion  with  Hiui  than  here  on  earth ;  comforted, 
not  in  Abraham's  hosom,  but  in  His ;  safe  in  the  ever- 

Y 


2,2  2  residting  to  soitls  m  the  Unseen  [lect. 

lasting  arms.  Perhaps  the  change  to  increased  blessed- 
ness is  from  both  causes,  objective  and  subjective ;  or, 
rather,  we  may  distinguish  three  causes  ;  some  nearer 
manifested  Presence  of  the  Lord;  some  upward  spring 
of  soul  and  spirit  into  greater  nearness  to  and  capacity 
for  Him,  such  as  must  indeed  necessarily  result  to  the 
living  and  capable  soul  from  His  nearer  manifestation 
of  Himself;  and,  thirdly,  the  greatly  more  favourable 
conditions  in  which  the  soul  finds  itself,  through  its 
deliverance  from  the  hurclen  of  the  flesh,  and  its  in- 
troduction into  the  'joy  and  felicity'  of  God's  chosen, 
its  rejoicing  with  the  gladness  of  His  People,  its  giving 
thanks  with  His  inheritance  (Psalm  cvi.  5).  But,  so 
far  as  the  change  is  in  some  nearer  Presence  of  the 
Son  of  God,  we  should  perhaps  be  more  right  in  con- 
necting it,  not  with  anything  that  took  place  during, 
or  upon,  the  visit  of  His  disembodied  spirit  to  the 
Unseen,  but  rather  with  the  spiritual  consequences 
that  followed,  to  Himself  and  to  His  Church,  (which, 
militant  or  at  rest,  is  His  Body,)  upon  His  Kesurrec- 
tion ;  when  His  Manhood,  from  whose  temporarily 
separated  elements  His  Godhead  had  never  been  dis- 
sociated, was  reconstituted  in  its  entirety,  and  fully 
glorified ;  and  upon  His  Ascension,  when  He  Who  had 
descended  first  into  the  lower  ^arts  of  the  earth  {E])h. 
iv.  8-10),  Who  had  gone  down  to  the  lowest  depths 
where  anything  human  was  to  be  found,  ascended  ujp 
far  above  all  the  heavens,  that  He  might  Jill  all  things. 
So,  filling  all  things.  He,  the  glorified  God-Man,  the 
new  Head  and  Centre  of  Redeemed  Humanity,  filled 
both  the  Church  on  earth  and  the  Church  in  Paradise 


VI,]        from  the  Work  of  the  One  Mediator.         323 

with  an  abiding  nearer  real  spiritual  Presence  than  was 
possible  before ;  and  the  Church  in  Paradise  with  an 
even  nearer  Presence  than  was  vouchsafed  to  the 
Church  on  earth ;  either  as  nearer  in  itself  and  in  the 
modes  and  agencies  of  its  manifestation  and  communi- 
cation, or  in  the  quickened  receptive  capacity  of  its 
subjects,  or  in  both. 


Y  2 


LECTUHE  YII. 

THE   WORK   OF  THE   MEDIATOR  DURING 
THE   GREAT   FORTY   DAYS. 

Acts  i.  2.  *0  'Irjo-oC?  .  .  .  evTeiXajxevos  rols  ^ Attoo-toKols  bta  Ylvev- 
fjLaros  ' AyCov,  ovs  e^eXe^aro,  av(Xi](p6r].  ols  koI  TTapi(TTi](TiV 
kavTOV  C^vra  ^ejci  to  iraOeiv  avrov,  iv  TioAAots  T(KiJ.r]pLOL<i,  8t 
r,p.ipG>v  TecaapaKovra  ovravofji.evo'i  avToHs,  kol  Keycav  to.  Trepl  rrjs 
(3a(n\(La<i  tov  &eov.  (Jesus  .  .  .  having-  g-iven  commandments 
through  the  Holy  Ghost  unto  the  Apostles  whom  He  had 
chosen,  was  taken  up  ;  to  whom  also  He  shewed  Himself 
alive  after  His  Passion  by  many  proofs,  visibly  appearing 
unto  them  during  forty  days,  and  speaking  the  things  con- 
cerning the  Kingdom  of  God.) 

154.  The  period  of  the  great  Forty  Days  which 
followed  the  Kesurrection  is  one  of  the  most  important 
and  pregnant  stages  of  the  great  work  of  the  One 
Mediator.  He  was  raised  in  ^oiver.  He  was  declared 
to  he  the  Son  of  God  tvitJi  jpoiver,  hy  the  Resurrection 
from  the  dead.  In  the  perfected  Majesty  of  His  God- 
penetrated  Humanity,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Man  Christ 
Jesus,  was  now  croivned  with  glory  and  ivorshiy.  God 
made  Him  to  have  dominion  of  the  ivorJcs  of  His  hands, 
^ndi  ^ut  all  things  in  sidjjection  under  His  feet  [Ps.  viii). 
All  ^ower  {e^ovaria,  delegated  authority)  u-as  given  unto 
Him  in  heaven  and  in  earth  [St.  Matt,  xxviii.  18). 
In  His  Resurrection,  as  in  their  pledge  and  promise, 
were  necessarily  wrapped  up  and  contained  His  Ascen- 
sion into  Heaven  and  His  Exaltation  to  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father  on  His  Throne  on  high. 


Christ's  Work  during  the  Forty  Days       325 

But  within  the  limits  of  this  period  there  was  a 
great  plastic  constitutive  work  to  be  done,  of  highest 
moment.  It  was  not  merely  that  inner  Prophetic 
work,  of  wliich  we  have  already  spoken,  whereby,  by 
the  in-breathing  of  His  Spirit,  now  His  loitliout  measure, 
and  communicable  from  His  holy  Humanity,  He  oj^ened 
their  undei'standings  that  they  might  understand  their 
own  ancient  Scrijptures,  and  see  Him  in  them  all ;  and 
so  gave  to  His  Church  the  only  key  to  unlock  the  Old 
Testament,  imparting  to  them  the  first  fresh  springs 
and  principles  of  that  Christian  exegesis  which  sup- 
plied the  basis  of  primitive  Apostolic  preaching,  teach- 
ing, and  writing ;  that  Christian  exegesis  which,  pre- 
served in  the  New  Testament  and  in  Catholic  tradition, 
has  been  her  light  and  her  treasure  ever  since.  It  was 
not  merely  His  gracious  Priestly  Absolution,  when,  to 
His  bewildered  and  fear-stricken  Apostles  who,  in  His 
hour  of  trial,  all  forsook  Him  and  fled,  and  to  Peter, 
who  had  thrice  denied  Him,  He  sent,  by  the  mouth  of 
Mary  of  Magdala,  His  brotherly  token  of  loving  re- 
conciliation, Go  to  My  brethren,  and  say  unto  them,  I 
ascend  unto  My  Father  and  your  Father,  and  to  My 
God  and  your  God;  nor  when,  at  night,  though  the 
doors  were  shut.  He  fulfilled  for  the  first  time,  as  the 
beginning  of  an  incalculable  scries  still  prolonging 
itself,  His  promise,  where  tivo  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  My  Name  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them ; 
and  Himself,  immediately  in  His  own  Person,  as  since 
by  the  mouth  of  His  ordained  ambassadors,  gave,  visibly 
and  audibly,  His  message  of  forgiveness,  Peace  he  unto 
you.     It  was  iliore  than  these.     These  were  true  and 


326  zcjas  the  work  of  the  King  [lect. 

vitally  necessary  exercises  of  His  Prophetic  and  Higli- 
Priestly  functions ;  vitally  necessary  as  a  preparation 
for  His  next  following  work  with  them,  and  upon  them, 
and  for  them,  and  for  us. 

155.  That  work  was  a  Eoyal  Work.  He  had  now 
received,  for  Himself  a  Kingdom,  and  had  returned. 
He  was  now  to  constitute  and  organize  that  Kingdom ; 
which  was  to  be  the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  upon  earth,  the  Kingdom  of  which  He,  the 
Eternal  Son  of  God  and  Heir  of  all  things,  was  now, 
in  His  Human  Nature,  the  Sovereign  Lord  and  Head, 
the  Founder,  the  Law-Giver,  the  Euler,  the  Beginning, 
and  the  End.  It  was  to  be  a  Kingdom  of  chosen  ones, 
of  those  ivhom  the  Father  had  given  Him,  in  the  world 
but  not  of  it ;  a  Kingdom  of  men  called  out  to  live 
above  the  world,  an  eKKXija-la,  a  Church ;  a  Kingdom  of 
human  beings  in  the  closest  living  union  with  Himself; 
a  Society  of  men  and  women  who  were  to  be  members  of 
Himself,  of  His  flesh  and  of  His  hones,  as  Eve  of  Adam's; 
a  multitude  of  souls  which,  in  thek  united  totality,  were 
to  be  His  Bride,  His  Body  of  which  He  is  the  Head. 

For  this,  from  the  first  beginning  of  His  earthly 
ministry,  He  had  been  making  preparation.  The  Gospel 
He  had  preached  was  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom.  The 
good  tidings  He  had  hi^ought  to  Zion  was  that  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  was  at  hand.  He  had  spoken  of 
it  as  future,  though  imminent,  On  this  Bock  I  will 
huild  My  Church.  He  had  gathered  its  materials  to- 
gether in  the  small  circle  of  His  believing  follow^ers. 
He  had  first  called  into  special  nearness  to  Himself  His 
twelve   Apostles ;    and    laid   the    foundations    of  His 


VII.]  organizing  His  Kingdom.  327 

Church  in  a  clergy  ^ ;  in  Peter  and  his  brethren,  the 
first  joints  in  the  strong  vertebrate  column  round 
which  the  Body  was  to  be  formed,  until  it  should 
have  grown  to  its  consummation  in  ilie  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  the  Christ. 

Now,  having  shelved  Himself  to  them  alive  after  His 
Passion  hy  many  infallible  'proofs,  having  lifted  up  their 
thoughts  and  their  faith  to  apprehend  the  full  spiritual 
grandeur   of  Himself  and    of  His  Work — that  work 
wherein  they  were  to  be  associated  witli  Him — He,  in 
solemn  converse  from  time  to  time,  gave  commandments 
unto  the  A])ostles  ivliom  He  had  cAose^i,  and  sj^oke  unto  them 
of  the  things  pertainiQig  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  (Acts  i.). 
A  very  special  and  weighty  significance  belongs  to 
the  recorded  Sayings  of  those  '  great  Forty  Days.'    The 
now  more  than  ever  manifestly  supernatural  character 
of  Him   Who   spake   them ;    His   declared  royal  and 
Divine  dignity;  the  altered  manner,  the  increased  so- 
lemnity, of  His  converse  with  His  followers  ;  its  occa- 
sional and,  however  overflowing  with  tenderness  and 
love,  its  solemn  and  mysterious  character,  recalling  the 
manner   of  His   Old  Testament  manifestations  as  the 
Angel  of  the  Loiw ;  the  pregnant  authoritative,  legisla- 
tive, and  imperative  brevity  of  the  Sayings  themselves  ; 
their  very  imlikeness,  in  respect  both  of  substance  and 
manner  as  well  as  of  circumstances,  to  anything  in  His 
previous  discourses   and  teaching ;    all  these  features 
combine  to  invest  them  with  peculiar  and  signal  in- 
terest,   and    to    show    that   they   are   the    dicta  of  a 

^  Comj)are  Gleaninys  from  the  writings  of  the  Rt.  Hon.  W.E.  Glad- 
stone, vol.  iii.  p.  262. 


328         The  First  Saying,  Peace;  the  Second,     [lect. 

Founder,  tlie  organic  laws  of  an  original  Legislator, 
the  fiats  of  a  Creator ;  introducing  a  new  order  of 
things  on  the  earth,  and  setting  on  work  in  the 
hearts  and  souls  of  men,  and  so  in  the  life-springs  of 
human  society,  new  forces ;  and  those  from  a  super- 
natural and  spiritual  sphere,  from  a  supernatural  and 
spiritual  centre,  from  Himself,  the  One  Mediator.  All 
that  He  had  said  and  done  in  the  earlier,  the  pre- 
liminary, stage  of  His  work  as  Incarnate  led  up  to 
what  He  said  and  did  in  this  formative  period.  All 
before  was  preparatory  to  this ;  all  was  anticipatory  of 
this.  All  that  has  happened  since  in  the  history  and 
development  of  His  Church,  from  Pentecost  onwards, 
has  grown,  and  is  growing,  out  of  this. 

156.  What  then  are  these  precious  words  of  power 
whose  creative  energy  is  M^orking  still  in  the  Church 
of  God  % 

They  are  few,  as  they  are  brief  Yet  here  I  can  do 
little  more  than  draw  your  attention  to  them  in  order ; 
commending  to  your  study,  for  a  fuller  treatment  of 
them,  the  special  discourses  upon  them  of  a  former 
Bampton  Lecturer,  Bishop  Moberly  of  Salisbury^  and  his 
Bampton  Lectures,  on  a  connected  subject,  of  1868. 

First  in  order,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  is  the  message 
of  forgiveness.  Peace  he  unto  you;  a  message  at  once 
both  royal  and  priestly,  the  Absolution  of  the  Great 
High-Priest,  the  Pardon  of  the  King.  There  is  great 
evangelic  force  in  the  primary  and  immediate  bestowal 
of  this  gift.  Forgiveness,  and  consequent  peace  vdth 
God,  is  ever  the  first  necessity  of  man,  the  first  con- 
dition of  communion  with  God,  of  work  for  God.     The 


VII.]  Cotmnissiou ;   the  Third,  Power;  329 

disciples  could  not  have  been  what  they  were  to  be, 
the  beginners  of  His  Kingdom,  the  first-fruits  of  the 
great  harvest  of  redeemed  souls,  the  first  results  them- 
selves of  His  finished  work  upon  the  Cross ;  still  less 
the  effectual  heralds  of  its  blessedness  to  others ;  until 
the  words  of  reconciling  love,  from  the  present  lips  of 
the  great  Messenger  of  the  New  Covenant  Himself, 
had  wrought  their  comforting  and  strengthening  effects 
within  their  own  souls. 

157.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  could  He  speak  the 
Second  word,  which,  in  view  of  His  approaching  bodily 
withdrawal,  and  the  consequent  necessity  of  the  delega- 
tion of  His  authority  to  others,  human  instruments, 
who  should  act  in  His  Name,  constituted  and  com- 
missioned the  Church,  which  is  His  Body,  to  be,  in  its 
corporate  totality.  His  representative  and  agent  on 
earth  [A^ijendix,  Note  10).  As  3Iy  Father  hath  sent  Me, 
even  so  send  I  you.  Brief  as  they  are,  no  words  could 
be  more  full  of  germinant  and  abiding  power. 

158,  The  Third  word  follows  at  once ;  for  the  dele- 
gation of  authority  must  be  accompanied  with  the  com- 
munication of  energy,  of  life  and  power,  of  wisdom 
and  of  grace,  in  which  to  wield  it :  Eeceive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost.  And  this,  accompanied  by  the  significant  in- 
dication of  what  had  not  been  wanting  at  the  opening 
of  the  first  stage  of  His  redemptive  Ministry  (the  stage 
of  His  own  immediate,  present,  visible  operation),  when, 
at  His  Baptism,  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  His 
Sacred  Manhood,  His  natural  body  and  soul,  in  visible 
bodily  form,  like  a  Dove.  So  now,  His  preliminary 
gift,  by  way  of  foretaste,  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  His 


330  The  remahmig  four,  dii'ective  and       [lect. 

Body  Mystical,  was  marked  by  the  accompaniment  and 
conveyance  of  an  inward  spiritual  grace  by  an  outward 
visible  sign.  In  this  circumstance  we  observe  a  sig- 
nificant example  of  that  Sacramental  principle  which, 
recognising  at  once  and  meeting  the  complex  character 
of  human  nature  with  its  material  embodiment,  and 
man's  infirmity  and  backwardness  in  faith,  was  to  be  so 
prominent  and  peculiar  a  feature  in  His  Church  of  the 
future.  He  hreathed  ii/pon  them,  now  that  the  barrier 
of  sin  had  been  removed.  Then,  as  ever  since,  the 
second,  or  rather,  we  should  say,  the  simultaneous  gift 
of  the  New  Covenant  (for  it  ever  accompanies  forgive- 
ness, and  is  part  of  it,  and  the  pledge  of  it),  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  all  needful  light  and  grace  and 
help,  was  instantly  conveyed  to  those  who  by  His 
Absolution  had  been  made  both  fit  and  able  to  receive 
it.  In  the  light  of  that  inward  gift  they  were  now 
enabled  to  appropriate  His  teaching,  as  He  proceeded 
to  ojpen  their  understanding,  that  they  might  understand 
the  Scriptures,  and  might  see,  as  they  had  never  yet 
before  been  able  to  see,  notwithstanding  the  words  He 
had  spoken  to  them  while  He  was  yet  with  them  in 
the  flesh,  the  fulfilment,  in  Him,  and  in  His  sufferings 
and  Hesurrection,  of  all  that  had  been  written  in  the 
Law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms 
[St.  Luke  xxiv.). 

159.  All  this  was  to  empower  them  for  the  work 
they  were  to  do.  The  remaining  Sayings  are  impera- 
tive in  form,  and  indicate  the  essential  features  of  that 
work  which  they  were  to  do  in  His  Name. 

They  were  to  go,  and,  in  His  Name,  to  preach,  or  j;ro- 


VII.]        imperative ;    The  Power  of  the  Keys ;         331 

claim,  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  among  all  nations, 
as  a  gospel  of  good  news,  to  every  creature,  heginning 
at  Jerusalem.  They  were  to  be  to  otliers  the  ivitness 
of  these  things,  of  His  Atoning  Death,  of  His  glorious 
Kesurrection,  and  of  the  forgiveness  and  grace  which 
had  come  thereby  to  themselves  in  their  own  joersonal 
experience.  As  a  society  of  forgiven  men,  the  accepted 
children  of  God,  they  were  to  announce  to  others  the 
same  blessing  on  the  same  terms ;  nay,  they  w^ere  to 
convey  it  in  effectual  power,  Whosesoever  si7is  ye  remit, 
they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and  ivhosesoever  sins  ye 
retain,  they  are  retained.  Thus  '  Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  left  power  to  His  Church  to  absolve  all  sinners 
who  truly  repent  and  believe  in  Him  ^'  Henceforward, 
the  Church  was  empowered  to  wield,  by  the  hand  of 
her  authorized  executive,  from  St.  Peter  onwards,  the 
keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  to  open  the  door  of 
formal  admission,  as  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  to  all 
who  believed  and  were  willing  to  be  baptized ;  to 
exclude  all  who  disbelieve  and  reject  the  message  of 
mercy  when  offered,  so  retaining  their  sins  in  full  con- 
demnatory power  over  them  ;  and  further,  since  sin 
was  sure  to  reappear  among  the  baptized,  to  exercise, 
for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  all — of  the  Body,  the  Society, 
as  a  whole,  and  of  its  several  members — a  double  dis- 
cipline of  salutary  efficacy,  in  the  judicial  exclusion 
from  Christian  fellowship  of  notorious  and  impenitent 
evil  livers,  so  long  as  they  remained  such,  and  in  the 
forgiveness  and  readmission  of  such  offenders  upon 
their  repentance  and  amendment ;  and  yet  again,  since 
'  See  Absolution,  in  the  Services  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick. 


332        The  Pastoral  Charge,  to  the  Ministry;   [lect. 

sin  within  the  Christian  body,  though  not  '  notorious/ 
might  be  voluntarily  felt,  as  a  restraining  bar  from 
full  communion,  or,  on  the  approach  of  death,  might 
weigh  with  awful  downcasting  force  on  even  the 
faithful  and  the  penitent,  to  convey,  by  the  mouth  of 
her  duly-ordained  officers,  the  special  individual  as- 
surance of  pardon  to  all  who  truly  repent  and  un- 
feignedly  believe. 

1 60.  Next,  in  what  Saint  John  expressly  describes 
as  tlie  ihird  time  that  Jesus  shelved  Himself  to  His 
discijples  after  that  He  was  risen  from  the  dead  (the 
evening  appearances,  on  the  Easter-Night,  and  on  the 
Octave  of  Easter,  being,  apparently,  the  two  that  pre- 
ceded it),  the  Lord,  speaking  especially  to  Saint  Peter 
as  the  chief  of  the  Apostles,  and  in  him  to  his  and 
their  successors  to  the  end,  and  insisting  on  proved 
personal  love  to  Himself  as  a  needful  inward  qualifica- 
tion, gives  to  His  ordained  Ministers  their  special 
teaching  commission  within  the  fold  of  the  Church 
itself,  Feed  my  Lambs;  feed  my  sheej).  The  general 
proclamation  {Ki]pva-a-eiv,  &c.)  of  the  Gosj)el  of  the  Grace 
of  God  to  those  without,  the  p)ublication  of  the  great 
facts  of  the  Life  and  Death  and  Eesurrection  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  consequent  possibilities  of  forgiveness  and 
salvation  to  penitent  sinners,  with  a  view  to  their 
being  brought  into  the  number  and  society  of  the 
crcoCpixevoi  (^Acts  ii.  47),  this  is  one  thing ;  the  careful 
feeding  and  training,  the  gradual  upbuilding  of  those 
within,  is  another  thing.  Both  are  recognised,  in  their 
several  distinctness,  in  the  final  Baptismal  Commission. 
(See  St.  MattheiO  xxviii.   19,   20:   TropevOei^re?    ovu    /ua9>]- 


VII.]  The  Baptismal  Commission^  at  the  333 

Teucrare  .  .  .  (SaTTTi^ovreg  .  .  .  SiSdaKovreg,  k.t.X.,  Go,  make 
discijiles  .  .  .  ha^tizing  .  .  .  teaching.)  The  former  is 
surely  open  to  the  zeal  of  the  menibers  in  general  of 
the  Christian  Society,  working  loyally  in  a  spirit  of 
love  and  goodwill,  not  of  eiivy  and  strife,  and  contention 
(Philij)jj.  i.  15),  and  in  union  with  the  authorized 
officers  of  the  Church :  the  latter  seems  to  be  rather 
a  special  function  of  these  last,  as  requiring  fuller  and 
higher  knowledge  and  experience,  and  closer  and  more 
exclusive  devotion  to  the  work  of  teaching,  as  well  as 
special  empowering  gifts,  conveyed  in  ordination ;  with- 
out which  gifts  none,  surely,  would  dare  to  undertake 
so  awful  and  so  responsible  a  task. 

161.  It  was  on  what  must,  perhaps,  be  considered 
the  most  public,  and  otherwise  remarkable,  occasion  of 
the  Lord's  Manifestation  of  Himself  after  His  Hesurrec- 
tion,  that  He  gave  the  Baptismal  Commission  which 
contains  the  conclusive  revelation  of  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Holy  Trinity.  In  the  Upper  Chamber  Jesus  had 
said  to  the  Apostles,  After  I  am  risen  again,  I  ivill  go 
hefore  you  into  Galilee  {St.  Mattlieio  xxvi.  32  ;  St.  Mark 
xiv.  28).  On  the  actual  Eesurrection  morning,  first 
the  angel  at  the  sepulchre,  and  then  the  Lord  Him- 
self, repeated  to  the  women  this  promise  for  the  dis- 
ciples, that  they  should  see  Him  in  Galilee  ;  with  a 
command  to  meet  Him  there  for  that  purpose.  St. 
Matthew,  who  records  these  promises,  records  their 
fulfilment  (xxviii,  16),  The  eleven  discijples  icent  into 
Galilee,  unto  the  mountaiii  ivhere  Jesus  had  a/p^ointed 
them.  It  is  impossible  to  resist  the  conclusion  that 
others   were   present   besides   the    Eleven ;    that   this 


334  meeting  on  the  mountain  in  Galilee,      [lect. 

great  occasion  was,  in  fact,  a  general  meeting  of  our 
Lord's  followers,  including  all  who  could  by  any  possi- 
bility attend.  (So  Olsbausen,  Stier,  Alford ;  so  Canon 
Cook,  in  Speaker  s  Commentary.)  And,  if  so,  the  occasion 
may,  very  probably,  be  identified  with  that  of  which 
St.  Paul  speaks  (i  Cor.  xv.  6),  when  the  Eisen  Christ 
was  seen  hy  ahove  Jive  hundred  hrethren  at  once.  The 
largeness  of  the  number  present  may  well  account  for 
St.  Matthew's  next  statement,  that  ivheii  they  saw  Him, 
and  worshijj^ed  Him,  some  doubted.  The  Eleven,  and 
others  present  with  them  in  Jerusalem,  had  certainly 
seen  Him  at  least  twice  before,  on  the  Easter  Night 
and  on  its  Octave,  and  so  had  been  satisfied  of  the 
reality  of  His  Kesurrection.  But  others  among  the 
large  number  of  His  Galilaean  followers  may  well  have 
hesitated  on  this  their  first  occasion  of  seeing  Him; 
and  then,  possibly,  at  some  distance,  at  least  at  first, 
foi'  in  the  next  verse  it  is  said  that  Jesus  came  toioards 
them  (Trpoa-eXOwv)  and  so  spake  unto  them  the  great 
words.  All  authority  hath  heen  given  unto  Me  in  Heaven 
and  on  earth,  Go  ye  therefore  and  make  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  Name  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  teaching  them  to 
observe  all  things  ivhatsoever  I  commanded  you :  and,  lo, 
I  am  ivith  you  all  the  days  even  unto  the  consummation 
of  the  age. 

Here  the  One  Mediator  speaks  in  the  fulness  of  His 
Mediatorial  Power ;  exercising,  in  a  great  authoritative 
act,  that  plenary  sovereignty  as  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
King,  wherewith  He  was  now,  since  His  glorification 
through   His   Passion,   solemnly  invested  in   His   In- 


VTi.]    Final  Charge  to  the  Apostles  at  Bethany.     335 

carnate  Nature ;  revealing,  once  for  all,  decisively  and 
distinctly,  His  relation  to  the  Father,  as  One  with  Him 
in  Essential  Deity;  and,  further,  disclosing  the  distinct, 
but  equally  Divine,  Personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
through  the  gift  of  Whom  to  His  Church  His  own 
continual  Presence  with  them  was  to  be  for  ever  as- 
sured, giving  His  ov^ti  authority  to  their  acts,  sacra- 
mental and  otherwise,  done  in  His  Name. 

162.  With  this  charge,  given  to  the  disciples  in 
general,  must  be  compared  the  final  charge,  given  to 
the  Apostles  at  Bethany,  before  the  Ascension.  The 
record  of  this  is  preserved  in  the  closing  verses  of  St. 
Mark  and  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  and  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  {yv.  4-8).  It  is 
noticeable,  first,  for  the  universal  sweep  of  its  com- 
mission, Go  ye  into  all  the  ivorld,  and  'preach  the  Gosjoel 
to  every  creature ;  Secondly,  for  its  authoritative  declara- 
tion of  the  terms  of  salvation,  He  that  helieveth  and  is 
l)a])tized  shall  he  saved,  and  its  equally  authoritative  de- 
nunciation of  the  consequence  of  rejecting  the  preached 
and  offered  Gospel,  He  that  disbelieveth  shall  he  con- 
demned ;  and.  Thirdly,  for  its  promise  of  the  miraculous 
powers  over  various  forms  of  evil,  bodily  and  spiritual, 
and  of  speaking  with  new  tongues,  which  should  ac- 
company and  attest  the  first  proclamation  of  the  Gospel. 
The  promise  of  the  great  Gift  of  the  Father  was  re- 
newed, and  they  were  commanded  to  tarry  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem  until  they  loere  endued  ivith  ^oiver  from  on 
high  {St.  Lulie  xxiv.  49). 

163.  And  so,  from  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives,    u'hen  He  had  said  these  things,  as  they  icere 


JO^ 


The  Ascension  into  Heaven.  [lect. 


looldng,  icliile  He  hlessed  them,  He  ])aTted  from  them, 
and  was  carried  u^  into  heaven,  and  a  cloud  received 
Him  Old  of  their  sight  {St.  Luke  xxiv,  5 1  ;  Acts  i.  9),  and 
He  was  received  ujo  into  Heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right 
hand  of  God  (St.  Mark  xvi.  19). 

Then  was  the  language  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Psahn 
fulfilled— 

'Lift  up  your  heads,  0  ye  gates; 
And  he  ye  lift  up  ye  everlasting  doors; 
And  the  King  of  Glory  shall  come  in. 

Who  is  this  King  of  Glory  ? 

Tlie  Lord  strong  and  mighty ; 

The  Lord  mighty  in  battle, 

Even  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  He  is  the  ICing  of  Glory.^ 

Then  also  was  fulfilled  the  typical  ministration  of  the 
great  Day  of  Atonement.  The  great  High  Priest,  the 
true  Aaron,  the  One  Mediator,  now  imssed  through  the 
heavens  [Heb.  iv.  14),  and  entered  ivithin  the  veil  into 
the  true  Sanctuary  of  the  Universe,  the  very  Presence 
of  the  Invisible  Eternal  God,  having  obtained  eternal 
Redemption  for  us  {Heb.  ix.  1 2).  Then  the  great  Sacri- 
fice, once  made  in  the  Upper  Chamber  and  upon  the 
Cross,  was  offered,  presented,  pleaded,  before  tlie  im- 
mediate Presence  of  the  Father,  an  offering  and  a 
sacrifice  to  God  for  a  sweet-smelling  savour  {E^h.  v.  2) ; 
perfectly  and  for  ever,  in  its  continual  presentation, 
through  the  continued  Presence  in  Heaven  of  the  Lamb 
as  it  had  been  slain  {Rev.  v.  6),  reconciling  Heaven  and 
earth,  and  uniting  them  in  one ;  in  one  Communion, 
one  Church,  one  Family,  with  one  life  and  one  worship, 
one  service  and  one  work. 


VII.]  Distinction  of'  statural '  d '  spiritual '  Mediation.  337 

164.  At  this  point  it  becomes  necessary  to  direct 
our  attention  afresh  to  the  distinction  between  the 
functions  of  natural  and  of  spiritual  Mediation  as  both 
exercised  by  the  One  Mediator ;  a  distinction  identical 
with  that  between  Nature  and  Grace,  as  commonly 
understood  among  Christians.  The  natural  life  of  all 
that  lives  owes,  as  we  have  seen,  its  origin  and  main- 
tenance to  the  instrumentality  of  the  Eternal  Son, 
through  Whom  the  Creative  fiat  of  the  Godhead  passes 
forth  into  actual  external  realization.  But,  in  beings 
endowed  with  a  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  angels  or 
men,  there  is  a  deeper  inner  life,  of  the  will  and  of 
the  affections.  This  is  their  spiritual  life,  the  life  of 
grace.  Of  this  also  the  Son  of  God  is  the  Mediator. 
Whatever  spiritual  life,  in  its  varied  forms  and  degrees, 
reaches  any,  it  is  ever  and  only  the  presence  and 
action,  within  heart  and  soul,  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
God,  ever  and  only  given  through  the  One  Mediator. 
The  all-inclusive  loss  of  the  fall  of  man  was  the  with- 
drawal of  this  life.  Sin  is  contradictory  to  it.  The 
wages  of  sin  is  death,  first,  in  the  spirit,  and  in  the 
higher  life  of  man  ;  then  in  the  body  and  the  lower, 
the  natural,  life.  The  great  work  of  the  Eedeemer  was 
the  recovery  of  this  higher  life  for  man.  Its  first 
necessary  part  was  the  removal  of  sin,  its  next  a  New 
Creation,  a  Regeneration,  of  human  nature.  This  was 
the  great  work  of  Christ's  spiritual  Mediation.  Fore- 
shadowed and  prepared  for  by  lesser  exercises  of  the 
same  gracious  function  through  a  long  series  of  ages, 
it  could  only  be  fully  achieved  on  His  actual  Incarna- 
tion.    He  must  become  one  of  us,  though  without  sin, 

z 


338       The  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost,    [lect. 

in  order  that  He  might  be  the  Second  Adam,  the  new- 
Head  and  Centre  of  the  New  Creation,  the  Father  of 
the  world  to  come.  And,  since  sin  had  entered  in,  He 
must  vanquish  sin  and  its  author  in  our  nature ;  though 
it  were  only  through  His  own  voluntary  submission 
to  the  law  of  sin  and  suffering  and  death  that  He 
could  destroy  him  that  had  the  ^oiver  of  death  (Heh. 
ii.  14). 

165.  This  great  work  was  now  completely  effected. 
Already,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  very  day  of  His 
Eesurrection,  with  loving  eager  haste,  the  Saviour 
began  to  apply  its  restorative  powers  to  those  whose 
faith  in  Himself  rendered  them  capable  of  such  restora- 
tion. Yet  was  this,  for  the  present,  only  by  way  of 
preliminary  pledge  and  foretaste.  His  entrance  into 
the  true  Holy  of  Holies,  there  to  appear  in  the  Presence 
of  God  for  us,  and  His  enthronement  as  King  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  must  precede  the  ftdl  restoration  of 
the  great  Gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  man's  true, 
man's  highest  life.  For  that  great  result,  that  crown- 
ing blessing,  was  to  be  at  once  the  fruit  of  the  all-pre- 
vailing Intercession  of  the  Great  High  Priest  in  the 
true,  the  Heavenly  Sanctuary,  and  the  bounteous  gift, 
the  gracious  royal  largess,  of  the  Eisen  and  Ascended 
Kinf>-.  It  came  at  Pentecost  on  the  united  assembled 
praying  Church,  wdiich  was  then,  according  to  the 
Baptist's  prophecy  (St.  Matt.  iii.  11),  baptized  ivith  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.  Then  was  the  Body  of  tlie 
Christ  fully  born  into  its  new  regenerate  life,  the  life 
of  the  new,  the  spiritual  creation,  the  life  of  living 
membership  in  Him,  as  to  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  the 


VII.]  was  the  Sacramental  Gift  of  Life  from  Christ,  339 

life  of  organic  union  with  the  Christ,  and,  in  Him  and 
through  Him,  with  God, 

The  manner  of  the  bestowal  of  the  gift  was  essen- 
tially sacramental.  It  was  accompanied  by  the  double 
outward  sign,  the  rusliing  miglity  ivind,  betokening  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Church  as  a  collective  whole, 
and  tlie  divided  tongues  lilce  as  of  fire,  resting  u^on  each 
one  of  them,  betokening  His  living  influence  in  and 
upon  each  severally.  In  that  all-inclusive  gift  were 
germinally  contained  all  the  powers  and  forces,  all  the 
gifts  and  graces  needed  for  the  full  development  of  the 
Body  Mystical  of  the  Christ.  It  was  the  conclusive 
token  of  accepted  Atonement ;  it  was  the  pledge  of 
full  and  complete  Reconcihation,  of  Peace,  of  Sonship ; 
for  it  was  the  spirit  of  adoption,  loherehy  we  'cry,  Ahha, 
Father  {Rom.  viii.  15).  It  made  those  who  received  it 
sons  of  God  {St.  John  i.  12),  uniting  them  to  the  Eternal 
Son,  their  Head.  It  was  Life  in  Christ,  Who  thereby 
became  the  true  inner  life  of  His  Church  and  of  each 
member  thereof  {Col.  iii.  3,  4).  It  was  a  life  which 
should  grow  and  strengthen,  in  both  its  forms,  the  in- 
dividual and  the  corporate,  in  the  original  Church,  the 
then  Body  of  the  Christ  (i  Cor.  xii.),  which  first  re- 
ceived it ;  and  in  the  thenceforward  growing  and  ex- 
panding Church,  as  it  spread  itself,  like  leaven, 
through  the  mass  of  unregenerate  human  nature,  by 
the  continual  admission,  on  Faith,  Repentance,  and 
Baptism,  of  new  members,  like  those  three  thou- 
sand, the  first-fruits  of  Clu'istian  preaching,  in  whose 
favour  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  were 
first   used  on  the    Day  of  Pentecost  itself,  and  who 

z  2 


340       and  the  beginning  of  the  Churclis  life.    [lect. 

were  the  earnest  of  the  great  harvest  that  was  to 
follow. 

The  record  of  its  earliest  growth  is  contained  in  the 
Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  in  the  Apostolic 
Epistles.  In  these  documents  we  have,  preserved  for 
all  time,  the  history  of  the  first  manifestation  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  world ;  of  the  first  exhibition  of  its 
principles,  moral  and  social ;  and  of  the  development 
of  the  constitution  and  working  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
according  to  the  principles  imparted  by  its  Divine 
Founder  to  its  first  ofiicers  and  members.  What  we 
find  in  the  latter  half  of  the  volume  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, from  the  Acts  onwards,  are  not  detailed  instruc- 
tions, nor  precise  rules  and  laws ;  but  the  concrete 
historic  exhibition,  in  actual  life  and  work,  of  certain 
great  principles  of  order  and  of  conduct,  together  with 
the  record — and  this  is  a  specially  precious  feature  of 
the  form  which  the  literary  monuments  of  original 
Christianity  providentially  took — the  record  of  certain 
typical  specimen  cases,  which  remain  as  examples  of 
tl]e  application  of  the  principles  which  the  Teaching 
and  Spirit  of  the  great  Head  had  lodged  within  His 
Church,  to  be  developed  for  its  guidance  and  govern- 
ance as  occasion  arose. 

1 66.  It  seems  demonstrable  that  the  great  Gift  of 
Pentecost  was,  like  the  sacramental  inbreatliing  of  the 
Paschal  night,  bestowed  not  on  the  Twelve  Apostles 
only,  but  on  the  larger  body  of  the  believing  disciples  in 
general  then  present  in  Jerusalem ;  on  the  then  Bodij 
of  Christy  in  fact,  together  with  its  already  developed 
organs  and  duly  authorized  and  acknowledged  execu- 


VII.]  Action  of  the  Apostolic  Ministry.  341 

tive  officers,  of  whom  Saint  Peter  was  first  {A2)^encl{x, 
Note  10).  For  the  present,  and  for  immediate  needs, 
those  organs,  those  officers,  were  the  Twelve  alone ;  the 
Twelve  as  one,  with  St.  Peter  their  mouthpiece.  Thus 
when  the  first  converts  from  the  outside  world  put 
their  first  question  to  the  Church,  3Ien  and  brethren, 
what  shall  we  do?  it  was  to  Peter  and  the  rest  of  the 
Apostles;  and  Peter  answered  them.  In  the  College 
of  the  Apostles  were  then  stored  up  and  contained  all 
the  needful  powers  and  resources,  for  Teaching  and 
for  Government,  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

Teaching  and  government  were  their  work;  but  their 
inherent  powers  for  that  work  were  to  be  exercised, 
even  during  the  early  years  of  their  united  residence 
at  the  original  centre,  Jerusalem,  according  to  a  due  and 
orderly  and  already  divinely-ptrovided  course  ;  of  which 
order  the  primacy  of  Saint  Peter  was  the  guarantee  and 
representative.  And  for  the  minor  and  subordinate 
exercise,  in  lesser  defined  departments  or  localities,  of 
parts  of  that  work,  (which  in  its  entirety  was  theirs, 
and  for  which  they  were  responsible  in  chief,)  they  were 
empowered  to  provide,  and  did  provide,  as  occasion 
arose.  It  is  even  probable  that  on  the  very  day  of 
Pentecost  itself  the  principle  of  delegation  came  already 
into  use,  and  that  the  Apostles,  exactly  as  their  Lord 
Himself  had  done  {St.  John  iv.  i ,  2),  either  in  whole  or 
in  part,  baptized  the  three  thousand  by  the  hands  of 
others  deputed  to  the  task.  In  the  general  body  of 
the  original  believers,  small  as  it  then  was,  there  would 
still  be  those  differences  of  age,  position,  character,  and 
aptitudes,    which    would    obviously    mark    out    some 


342      Ideal  life  of  the  first  Christian  Church,  [lect. 

rather  than  others  for  subordinate  duties  under  Apo- 
stoUc  direction.  One  such  distinction  (we  can  hardly 
doubt)  would  be  the  circumstance  of  having  been,  by 
the  Lord's  own  call,  one  of  the  Seventy.  Another  might 
well  be  the  belonging  to  the  family  of  the  Lord  Him- 
self, or  to  a  priestly  family. 

167.  The  beautiful  picture  of  the  First  Church,  con- 
tained in  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Ajoostles  (see  especially  the  latter  verses  of  chapters  ii. 
and  iv.),  has  an  undying  attraction  for  us.  It  is  the  Ideal 
of  what  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth,  should  be ;  in  itself,  and  as  a  power  for  good  in 
the  world.  Peace  and  unity,  brotherly  love  and  self- 
obliterating  helpful  service,  joyful  thanksgiving  wor- 
ship, and  holy  high  communion  with  God,  a  simple 
and  gladsome  social  life  one  with  another — these  are 
its  plain  and  striking  features.  They  are  exactly  what 
the  life  of  man  ought  to  be,  as  lived  in  the  great 
thouofht  of  the  central  fact  of  the  Kesurrection,  in  itself 
so  wondrous  a  revelation  of  the  higher,  the  eternal  life 
for  which  man  was  made ;  and  which  was  now  re-opened 
to  him,  and,  in  the  power  and  force  of  the  Pentecostal 
gift,  placed  within  his  reach,  now  and  for  ever. 

Thus  a  new,  a  supernatural  force  and  agency,  lodged 
in  the  Catholic  Church  as  its  organ  and  instrument, 
was  now  planted  in  the  midst  of  the  hostile  world,  for 
its  recovery  to  God.  What  should  ideally,  had  the 
ancient  Israel  been  faithful,  have  come  by  continuous 
and  peaceful  development  without  a  break,  must  now 
call  out  an  intenser  opposition  to  God,  to  His  Purpose, 
and   to   His  Method.     It  must  be  seen  that,  in  the 


VII,]  opposed  by  the  unbelieving  world.  343 

result,  lie,  who  was  essentially  tlie  Prince  of  Peace, 
and  the  Ambassador  of  Peace,  had  come  not  to  send 
peace  on  earth,  hut  a  sivord.  The  settled  and  matured 
hostility  to  Jesus  on  the  part  of  the  classes  who  de- 
termined the  attitude  and  action  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
sealed  irremediably  as  it  had  been  by  the  murder  of  the 
Messiah,  must  necessarily  extend  itself  to  His  Church. 
The  breach  declared  from  the  moment  when  they  rejected 
Him  and  His  Kingdom,  in  the  fatal  words,  We  have  no 
king  hut  Csesar,  could  only  grow  wider  until  it  ended 
in  their  downfall  and  destruction.  The  gift,  a  paljoable 
gift  which  they  both  saw  and  heard,  which  He  shed 
forth,  according  to  ancient  prophecy  and  to  His  own 
more  recent  promises,  was  the  proof  at  once  of  His 
Resurrection  and  of  His  Ascension  and  Enthronement. 
It  was  the  sure  pledge  that  He  Who  had  gone  aivay 
into  afar  country  had  now  received  for  Himself  a  King- 
dom ;  and  was  now  hy  the  Right  Hand  of  God  exalted  as 
Prince  and  Saviour,  as  hoth  Lord  and  Christ  {Acts  ii.  36), 
as  Lord  of  all  (x.  36).  And  it  was  also  the  proof  that, 
having  received  for  Himself  His  Kingdom,  He  would 
return  in  power  and  majesty,  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
Heaven,  and  that  ere  that  then  living  generation  should 
pass  away,  for  the  judgment  of  the  apostate  Church. 

168.  Meantime,  throughout  the  whole  of  that  genera- 
tion, by  the  space  of  forty  years,  there  was  to  be  a 
respite  of  grace.  The  offer  of  mercy  was  to  be  specially 
made  to  the  Jews,  both  of  Palestine  and  of  the  Dis- 
persion, and  to  them  first,  ere  the  Mediator  should  be- 
come the  Judge.  Unto  them  first  God,  having  raised 
up  His  Son  Jesus,  sent  Him  to  hless  them  in  turning 


344  Three  Mdnifestations  of  the  Ascended  Christ,  [lect. 

away  every  one  of  them  from  his  iniquities  (Acts  iii.  26), 
and  offering  them,  no  longer  as  a  Nation,  but  one  by 
one,  a  home  among  tlie  true  Israel  of  God,  a  citizen- 
ship in  the  New  Jerusalem.  The  record  of  this  work, 
and  of  the  announcement  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the 
world  and  the  opening  of  the  New  Covenant  to  the 
Gentiles,  is  preserved  in  the  inspired  literature  of  the 
New  Testament.  It  was  a  work  of  difficulty,  of  suffer- 
ing, of  martyrdom.  Hence  three  special  manifestations 
of  the  risen  and  ascended  Christ,  the  now  Incarnate 
Son  of  God,  in  His  glorified  humanity,  are  recorded. 

169.  These  manifestations  recall,  and  are  to  be  con- 
sidered in  a  line  with,  those  appearances,  in  human  or 
angelic  form,  under  the  Old  Covenant,  which,  as  prepa- 
ratory to  the  Incarnation,  we  considered  in  Lecture  IV, 
and,  like  them,  they  occur  on  special  and  critical  occa- 
sions. Their  character  is  thus  marked  as  unusual ;  as 
not  belonging  to  the  normal  manifestation  of  Christ 
through  the  Holy  Spirit  in  and  to  His  Church.  The 
first  of  these  was  that  to  St.  Stephen,  immediately 
before  his  martyrdom.  In  his  trial  before  the  Council 
the  two  now  opposing  influences  met  face  to  face ;  the 
official  Jewish  Church,  apostate,  rejected,  and  already 
doomed,  in  its  resistance  to  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the 
Christian  Church,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  faith 
in  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  He  Who  had  said,  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  all  the  days,  was  not  wanting  to  His  faithful 
witness  at  that  supreme  moment.  Stephen,  the  first 
to  die  for  the  Faith  of  Christ,  looked  up  steadfastly  to 
heaven,  saw  the  Shekinah-glory,  and  Jesus  standing  on 
the  right  hand  of  God,  and  said,  Behold,  I  see  the  heavens 


VII.]  The  Date  of  the  Apocalypse.  345 

ojoeiied,  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of 
God.  In  intimate  connection  with  this  was  the  second 
manifestation  of  the  ascended  Jesus  to  Saul  the  persecut- 
ing zealot,  who  had  stood  hy,  consenting  to  the  murder 
of  Saint  Ste2:>hen.  It  forced  open  his  closed  heart  to  the 
overpowering  conviction  that  the  despised  Jesus,  Whom 
in  His  followers  he  persecuted,  was  indeed  the  Lord. 
It  converted  him  into  Paul  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 
the  chosen  vessel  to  carry  that  Name  which  he  had 
hated  hefore  the  Gentiles  and  kings  and  the  children  of 
Israel  (Acts  ix.  15).  The  third  manifestation  was  that 
vouchsafed  to  the  beloved  exile  of  Patmos,  the  com- 
panion and  partaker  with  the  then  much- suffering 
Church  in  the  tribulation  and  Kingdom  and  jjatience 
which  are  in  Jesus  [Rev.  i.  9).  Again,  the  gracious  and 
encouraging  Revelation  of  Him  Who,  in  His  unseen 
glory  is  the  Prince  of  the  kings  of  the  earth  (Rev.  i.  5), 
as  well  as  the  Head  and  Lord,  the  Guide  and  Governour 
and  Protector  of  His  Church,  was  sorely  needed.  Once 
made,  it  serves  for  her  assured  support  and  comfort 
through  all  time  until  He  shall  come  again. 

170.  It  is  no  part  of  our  present  task  to  discuss  the 
questions  of  the  date,  and  consequent  true  primary 
reference,  of  the  Apocalypse.  It  must  suffice  to  say 
here  that  the  study  of  it  led  me  long  since  to  the  con- 
viction that  its  date  lies  within  three  years  or  less  of 
the  catastrophe  of  the  Jewish  War  and  of  the  downfall 
of  Jerusalem.  The  time  was  one  of  great  excitement 
among  the  Jews ;  not  in  the  Holy  Land  only,  but 
throughout  the  world.  It  was,  consequently,  a  time 
of  great   trial    for   the   Christian   communities  every- 


346  The  Jeivish  believers  were  especially      [lect. 

where.  They  were  exposed  to  the  combined  hostihty,  at 
once,  of  the  imbelievmg  Jews,  and  of  the  Gentile  powers, 
who  ignorantly  confounded  them  with  the  everywhere 
detested  Jews,  and  hated  them  accordingly  ^  The 
Christians  of  Jewish  race  would,  for  obvious  reasons, 
be  likely  to  suffer  most  from  both  these  quarters ;  and 
many  might  well,  under  their  circumstances  of  fearful 
trial,  be  tempted  to  apostatize.     Their  still  remaining 

^  The  few  years  immediately  preceding  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem 
by  Titus  were  in  fact,  and  that  in  an  increasing  degree  year  after  year, 
the  time  of  that  6\L\j/t.s  jxcyaXr]  {the  Great  Tribulation,  the  Tribulation 
of  these  days)  which  was  so  specifically  foretold  in  the  Olivet  Pro- 
phecy {St.  Matt.  xxW.  g,  21,  29);  of  which,  as  a  necessary  antecedent 
condition  of  the  incoming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Apostles  fore- 
warned their  converts  {Acts  xiv,  22  ;  i  Cor.  vii.  28);  which  had  become, 
before  the  date  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  a  very  present  fact 
(//e6.  X.  32-34) ;  which  St.  John  shared  in,  with  the  rest  {BevA.g), 
and  out  of  which  the  souls  of  the  martyrs  passed  into  the  Presence  of 
the  Lamb  {Rev.  vii.  14),  It  seems  to  have  coincided  with,  or  at  least 
to  have  fallen  within,  that  period  during  which  the  Devil,  who  had 
previously  been  the  Prince  of  this  World  {St.  John  xii,  31)  and  had, 
especially  through  the  agency  of  idolatrous  religion,  deceived  the  whole 
world,  i.  e.  especially  the  Gentiles  {Rev.  xii.  9  ;  xx.  3,8:  i  Cor.  x.  30), 
was  cast  out  into  the  earth  {Rev.  xii.  9  ;  compare  St.  Luke  x.  i8  ; 
St.  John  xii.  31),  and  so  had  gi-eat  wrath,  because  he  knew  that  he  had 
but  a  short  time  {Rev.  xii.  12)  before  the  mystery  of  God  should  be 
finished  {x.  6,  7),  and  vented  that  great  ivrath  in  persecuting  theiooman 
(the  faithful  Church,  the  true  Israel)  which  brought  forth  the  man 
child,  and  in  going  to  war  with  the  remnant  of  her  seed,  which  kejit  the 
commandments  of  God,  and  held  fast  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ 
(xii.  13,  17).  The  short  time  was  closed  by  the  millennial  binding  of 
Satan,  consequent  upon  that  coming  of  Christ  in  His  Kingdom  which 
was  signalized  outwardly  by  the  fall  of  apostate  Jerusalem,  and  the 
presence  of  which  Kingdom  on  earth,  in  the  Catholic  Church  of  the 
Times  of  the  Gentiles,  marks  and  guarantees  the  temjiorary  abeyance 
of  the  full  power  of  the  imprisoned  deceiver. 


VII.]  persecuted  by  their  own  tinbelievhig  347 

strong  attachment  to  their  own  ancient  system,  and 
their  intense  national  ]iride  in  their  beautiful  capital, 
and  their  great  Temple  with  its  stately  worship — feel- 
ings whicli,  in  their  case,  could  not  possibly  escape  the 
contagion  of  the  special  excitement  then  prevalent 
among  their  brethren — would  tend  (it  can  hardly  be 
doubted)  to  increase  the  force  of  that  temptation.  The 
whole  system  in  which  they  had  grown  up,  round 
which  their  deepest  affections  had  entwined  themselves, 
and  which  had  necessarily  left  so  deep  a  mark  upon 
them,  was  plainly  threatened  with  destruction.  The 
very  thought  of  its  passing  away  had  almost  driven 
their  race  to  madness.  That  such  should  be  the  end 
of  their  excited  expectation  of  a  Messiah  Who  should 
be,  in  their  worldly  sense,  tlie  prince  of  the  kings  of 
the  earth,  and  should  not  only  deliver  them  from  their 
subjection  to  Rome,  but  place  them  in  a  position  of 
supremacy  in  the  world,  was  to  the  Jews  an  intoler- 
able thought.  The  Christian  Jews  would  know  of  the 
ominous  predictions  which  the  first,  the  more  specially 
Hebrew,  Gospel  has  preserved,  in  the  record  of  Christ's 
great  Prophecy  on  Olivet,  and  of  the  words  of  Christ 
to  Caiaphas.  And  not  the  Christian  Jews  only.  We 
cannot  doubt  that  that  answer  to  Caiaphas  was  care- 
fully treasured  up  against  Christ  and  His  Cause  in  the 
memories  of  non-Christian  Jews  ;  and  they  might  well 
have  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  Olivet  discourse  also 
from  Christian  relatives.  The  presence  of  this  know- 
ledge, and  the  consequent  passionate  feeling  it  would 
naturally  generate,  is  very  clearly  indicated  in  the 
testimony  of  the  suborned  false  witnesses  against  Saint 


348      co2intrymcn,  as  well  as  by  the  Heathen,    [lect. 

Stephen  {Ads  vi.  13),  Tiiis  man  ceasetli  not  to  sjoeak 
hlas^hemous  ivords  against  this  Holy  Place  and  the  Latv : 
for  we  have  heard  him  say,  that  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
shall  destroy  this  ^lace,  and  shall  change  the  customs 
tvhich  Moses  delivered  us.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine 
the  bitterness  and  violence  of  the  feelings  which  would 
be  thus  aroused  in  the  minds  of  the  still  unbclievinof 
Jews  against  their  Christian  countrymen ;  nor  the  in- 
tensity of  the  pressure,  moral  and  otherwise,  to  which 
these  would  be  subjected  in  consequence.  Nor  can  we 
wonder  that,  under  such  circumstances,  the  thought 
should  have  come  back  again,  to  the  minds  of  some  at 
least  among  them,  Can  it  be,  after  all,  that  Jesus  is 
what  Christians  maintain  He  is  ?  They  knew  that  God 
spake  to  Moses  {St.  John  ix.  29).  They  knew  that  the 
ancient  and  venerable  relio-ion  of  their  race  rested  on 
the  acknowledged  foundation  of  a  great  historic  revela- 
tion. Was  it  really  necessary  to  acquiesce  in  the  belief 
that  all  its  outward  and  visible  splendour  must  pass 
away  for  ever,  and  be  as  if  it  had  never  been  ?  Was 
the  Christian  allegation  true,  that  its  real  inward 
essence  was  imperishably  secured  in  the  Work  and  in 
the  Church  of  Christ  1  Could  it  be  that  the  humble 
Christian  Church  of  those  days,  the  sect  that  was 
everyu'here  spohen  against,  was  to  be,  and  that  ex- 
clusively, what  it  should  all  end  in  l  Putting  ourselves 
into  the  position  of  that  first  generation  of  Hebrew 
believers,  we  may  well  imagine  their  difficulties,  their 
sore  temptations.  That  the  Church  survived  and 
triumphed  notwithstanding  such  difficulties,  not  to 
speak  of  others  which,  like  these,  were  peculiar  to  that 


VII.]  The  Apocalypse  is  an  expanded  349 

time,  is  one  among  the  many  sure  proofs  of  her  super- 
natural origin.  It  was  to  meet  such  difficulties,  and  to 
strengthen  them  against  such  strong,  subtle,  and  plau- 
sible temptations,  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was, 
very  evidently,  written ;  to  arm  them  beforehand  at 
once  against  the  growing  intensity  of  the  special  per- 
secution they  had  already  begun  to  suffer  from,  and 
against  the  heavy  blow,  now  imminent,  of  the  visible 
downfall  of  that  system  which,  to  the  insight  at  least 
of  spiritually-minded  Christians,  had  long  been  decay- 
ing and  ivaxing  old,  and  was  ready  to  vanish  away 
(Heh.  viii.  13)  ^ 

171.  With  the  same  state  of  things  fit  in  the  mes- 
sages and  the  revelation  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  date 
of  which  its  style  and  language  combine  with  other 
considerations  to  place  as  early  as  I  have  indicated. 
It  were  strange  indeed,  were  it  possible,  that  of  the 
four  Evancrelists  the  one  who  alone  is  named  amono:  the 
small  group  of  the  four  actual  listeners  to  the  discourse 
on  Olivet  (see  St.  Mark  xiii.  3)  should  have  left  no 
record  of  it ;  especially  since  it  is  he  who  gives  such 
prominence  in  his  Gospel  to  our  Lord's  controversy 
with  Jewish  unbelief  But  if  we  suppose  the  Apoca- 
lypse to  be  a  special  fuller  revelation  on  the  same  sub- 
jects as  occupy  the  twenty-fourth  and  twenty-fifth 
chapters  of  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel  and  the  parallel 
passages  in  the  other  Synoptics ;  to  be,  as  it  were,  a 
fuller  form,  an  expansion,  on  a  larger  canvas,  of  the 

'  Compare  also  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  the  Bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
written  under  the  same  general  circumstances,  at  a  somewhat  earlier 
date  ;  observing  especially  i.  2,  3,  i  2  ;  ii.  6,  7  ;  v.  2,  7-1 1. 


350        form  of  Christ's  Prophecy  on  Olivet ;     [lect, 

solemn  prophecy  to  which  Peter  and  James  and  John 
and  Andrew  had  listened  as  thev  sat  with  Jesns,  on  that 
last  Tuesday  evening,  on  the  slopes  of  Olivet,  facing 
the  setting  sun,  with  the  doomed  city  and  its  glorious 
Temple  lying  full  in  their  beauty  at  their  feet,  such 
difficulty  is  removed. 

The  downfall  has  proved  so  great,  so  terrible,  so 
complete,  the  period  it  closed  has  so  completely  passed 
away,  that  later  generations  have  failed  sufficiently  to 
estimate  either  the  grandeur  and  the  glory  of  the  Jeru- 
salem of  that  day,  and  of  the  system  of  which  it  was  the 
visible  centre  and  representative,  or  the  very  peculiar 
and  critical  character  of  the  whole  epoch.  Hence  has 
arisen  a  failure  to  perceive  the  true  primary  bearing 
alike  of  the  Olivet  discourse  and  of  the  Apocalypse ; 
and  a  sort  of  feeling  that  the  language  is  too  grand 
and  high-flown  for  such  an  application.  But  this  latter 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  truer  view  arises  in  great 
measure  from  a  too  literal  habit  of  mind  in  estimating 
the  symbolical,  and  consequently,  (as  it  seems  to  the 
more  prosaic  Western  mind,)  the  hyperbolical  character 
of  the  language  and  imagery  of  prophetic  Scripture. 
Looking  closely  at  the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Saint 
Matthew,  we  discern  a  clear  line  between  the  first  and 
the  second  portions  of  the  great  prophecy.  Surely  our 
Lord  Himself  has  given  us  the  key  to  the  primary  ap- 
plication of  the  first  portion.  It  lies  in  His  words,  as 
reported,  with  all  but  verbal  identity,  by  the  three  Sy- 
noptics {Si.  Matt.  xxiv.  34  ;  ;S^^.  Mark  xiii.  30 ;  St.  Luke 
xxi.  32),  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  this  generation  shall  not 
jpass  away  till  all  these  things  he ful/illed.  For  one  primary 


VII.]         both  refer  to  the  Comings  of  Christ.  351 

and  very  practical  purpose  of  the  prophecy  was  to 
warn  beforehand  those  whom  it  would  actually  closely 
concern  ;  in  order  that,  when  the  time  came,  they 
might  secure  their  safety  by  flight ;  as  we  know  the 
Christians  of  Jerusalem  did.  But  after  these  words  the 
discourse  changes  its  character.  It  passes  into  a  general 
warning  to  all  Christians,  and  especially  (>SV,  Matt.  xxiv. 
45)  to  the  clergy,  of  the  necessity  of  watchful  readiness 
for  that  later,  and  greater,  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  to 
Judgment,  of  which  the  Visitation  on  Jerusalem  was  a 
type.  In  this  second  portion,  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
assurance  that  the  former  portion  would  be  fulfilled 
within  that  generation,  we  find  clear  indications  of  the 
lapse  of  an  indefinitely  long  time.  They  lie  in  the  phrase 
xvliile  the  Bridegroom  tarried  {^povlX^ovro^)  and  in  the 
Lord's  return  (in  the  Parable  of  the  Talents,  St.  Matt. 
XXV.  19),  after  a  long  time.  Distinct  again  from  this 
portion  is  the  solemn  description  of  the  final  Judge- 
ment of  the  Gentile  world  [iravra  ra  eOvt])  with  which 
the  discourse  closes,  and  which  is  without  any  note  of 
time,  further  than  what  is  implied  in  its  position  as  fol- 
lowing the  Parables  of  the  Virgins  and  of  the  Talents. 

But  the  decisive  character  of  the  break  after  verse  34 
is  clearly  marked ;  for  the  next  words  carry  us  on  from 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem  to  the  final  Consummation. 
The  heaven  and  the  earth  shall  ^mss  away,  hut  My 
words  shall  not  j)ass  away.  But  of  that  day  and  hour, 
i.  e.  in  which  the  heaven  and  the  earth  shall  pass  away, 
hnowetli  not  any,  no,  not  the  angels  of  heaven,  hut  My 
Father  only. 

The  parallel   place  in  Saint  Mark  has  here  the  re- 


352    Time  of  the  still  future  Coming  710 1  revealed,  [lect. 

markable  addition,  Neither  the  Son.  This  gives  still 
greater  point  to  the  sharp  contrast  of  the  uncertainty 
(humanly  speaking)  of  the  time  of  the  great  future 
and  final  Consummation  of  the  Age  to  come  (the 
Christian  Dispensation,  then  only  beginning),  with  the 
express  declaration  of  the  Son  that  the  close  of  the 
then  Age,  the  Jewish  Dispensation,  would  certainly 
be  seen  by  men  then  living.  The  difference  of  the 
two  statements  is  also  further  marked  by  their  close 
and  immediate  juxtaposition.  The  addition  ovSe  6 
V169  [neither  the  So7i)  perhaps  only  expresses  what  is 
really  implied  in  the  /moi/og  [only)  of  el  fxr]  6  iraTrip  ixov 
fjLovos  {hut  My  Father  only).  The  Lord's  saying,  re- 
corded in  Acts  i.  7,  should  be  compared  in  this  con- 
nection ; — It  is  not  for  you  to  hnow  times  or  seasons, 
which  the  Father  set  in  his  own  power.  The  knowledge 
of  the  doom  of  Israel,  after  its  long  history,  was 
appropriate  even  to  the  human  nature  of  Him  Whom 
it  closely  concerned  as  the  King  of  the  Jeivs,  and  Whose 
sentence,  in  fact,  it  was.  The  future  consummation  of 
the  Christian  Age  [aiwv)  of  the  times  of  the  Gentiles, 
then  only  beginning,  was  a  mystery  upon  which,  just 
because  it  was  only  beginning  (or,  biblically  speaking, 
only  to  begin  on  the  downfall  of  Jerusalem),  no  light 
was  as  yet  vouchsafed  to  any  created  intellect.  The 
issues  of  our  dispensation  lay  in  the  free-will  of  man, 
to  the  action  of  which  it  was  subjected,  as  well  in  the 
offer  of  the  Gospel  as  in  the  commission,  and  com- 
mand, to  spread  it.  How  many,  and  whom,  out  of  the 
world,  the  Father  should  give  to  the  Son,  was,  together 
with  the   relation  of    man's    free-will  to    such  act  of 


VII.]  The  first  Coming  to  Judgment  not  unexpected;  353 

gift,  an  impenetrable  secret  and  mystery,  hid  in  the 
Absolute  and  Sovereign  Will  of  the  Eternal  Father ; 
not  revealed,  at  the  time  Christ  spoke  on  earth,  to  the 
human  mind  of  even  the  Eternal  Son.     And  there  was 
EG  experience  light  as  yet,  at  that  date,  upon  it.     The 
attitude  of  tlie  rulers  of  the  Jeivs  was,  indeed,  already 
fatally   determined,    and    their    doom    thereby   sealed. 
But  the  attitude  of  the  Jews  of  the  dispersion  was 
(perhaps)  not  yet  so  ascertained  at  the  time  our  Lord's 
words   were    spoken,    and    upon    that    attitude   much 
depended.     It  was  otherwise  thirty  or  thirty-five  years 
later,  as  we  know  from  the  later  Epistles  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  from  the  Apocalypse.     Hence  (it  would 
seem)  the  greater  fulness  (as  compared  with  the  Ohvet 
Discourse)  of  the  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  God 
gave  unto  Him,  and  which  He  sent  and  signified  hy  His 
angel  unto  His  servant  John  [Eev.  i.  i)  to  testify  unto 
the  then  Christians  these  things  in  the  Churches  (xxii. 
16).     They  were  then  things  which  must  shortly  come  to 
imss  (i.  i).     Upon  them  was  to  follow  the  Millennial 
period ;    a   long,  but   wholly  indefinite,  period,  \o  be 
closed   by  the  General   Resurrection    and  Judgment; 
but   that  at  a  day   and    hour  of  which  the  inspired 
volume  gives  absolutely  no  indication   whatever.      It 
only  intimates  that  it  will  be,  to  the  generation  on 
whom  it  comes,  awfully  sudden  and  unexjoected ;  prob- 
ably because    of  their  unbelief  and  consequent  mere 
worldliness.      The  catastrophes   that   came   upon  the 
world   A.D.   67  to  70,  were   not  unexpected;   and  the 
men  of  that  time  were  not  altogether,  like  the  con- 
temporaries of  Noah,  absorbed  in  worldly  business  and 

A  a 


354        after  it  the  present '  Millennial''  Period,    [lect. 

enjoyment.  On  the  contrary,  there  was  distress  of 
nations  loith  ])er^lexity,  mens  hearts  failing  them  for 
fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things  ichich  were 
coming  on  the  earth  {St.  Luke  xxi.  25).  This  again  is 
an  indication  that,  from  the  words  '  Heaven  and  earth 
shall  jpass  away '  to  the  close  of  the  Olivet  Discourse 
the  reference  is  to  things  that  are  now  still  future. 
It  is  very  observable  that  there  is  a  parallel  break  and 
change  of  subject  in  the  Apocalypse ;  through  which, 
from  the  fourth  chapter  onwards,  we  trace  a  general 
analogy,  though  on  a  greatly  enlarged  scale,  to  the 
Prophecy  on  Olivet.  The  doomed  city  is  the  same  in 
both.  The  once  faithful  city  had  hecome  an  harlot 
{Isaiah  i.  21),  a  Babylon,  not  a  Jerusalem,  a  'city  of 
confusion,'  not  a  '  Vision  of  Peace  '  {Apjpendix,  note  1 1 ). 
The  Elect  Church  was  to  be  delivered  from  her  hatred, 
and  placed  beyond  reach  of  the  misery  of  her  downfall, 
the  description  of  which  is  completed  in  the  eighteenth 
chapter.  Then  it  is  announced  (xix.  7)  that  '  the  Mar- 
riage of  the  Lamb  is  come,'  and  we  are  reminded  of  the 
Parable  of  the  Ten  Virgins  in  the  Olivet  Prophecy 
{St.  Matt,  xxv),  and  the  imagery  there  employed.  After 
this  follows  {Rev.  xx)  the  Millennial  period,  w^iich, 
according  to  the  most  reasonable  and  probable  interpre- 
tation, seems  to  answer  generally  to  the  present  actual 
dispensation  (see  Lecture  VIII  and  Ajjpendix,  note  12); 
and  then,  with  manifest  reference  to  Christ's  own  words 
in  Saint  Matthew,  the  Seer  exclaims  (xx.  11),  And  I 
saw  a  great  white  throne  (the  " tlu^one  of  His  glory") 
and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  before  whose  face  the  earth  and 
'the  heaven  fled  away :  and  there  loas  no  ^lace  found  for 


VII.]         Secondary  '  applications '  of  Prophecy  355 

tliem.    And  I  saiv  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  hefore 

God And  I  saio  (xxi.  i)  a  neio  heaven   and  a 

new  earth :  for  the  first  heaven  arid  the  first  earth  ivere 
jpassed  away. 

172.  In  offering  this  comparatively  simple  solution 
of  a  problem  on  wliicb,  through  long  ages,  volumes 
have  been  written,  with  the  general  result  only  of 
making  confusion  worse  confounded,  and,  in  some  in- 
stances, of  bringing  contempt  and  ridicule  on  a  deeply 
interesting  and  solemn  subject,  and  even  on  Biblical 
Exegesis  generally,  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  it  deals 
only  with  the  original  primary  and  immediate  reference 
at  once  of  the  Apocalypse— as  a  revelation,  shortly 
before  the  event,  of  the  coming  downfall  of  Judaism, 
and  of  Jerusalem,  its  centre — and  of  the  corresponding 
portion  of  the  Saviour's  eschatological  discourse.  Of  the 
Revelation,  chapters  four  to  nineteen  inclusive,  the  '  Pre- 
terist '  view  seems  the  true  view.  But  it  is  the  nature 
and  characteristic  of  New  Testament,  as  it  is  of  Old 
Testament,  Prophecy,  to  have,  beyond  its  primary,  and 
(so  to  say)  intended,  reference,  beyond  the  immediate 
historic  fulfilment  which  was  consciously  anticipated 
by  the  prophet  himself,  the  capability  of  further  '  appli- 
cations '  by  way  of  analogy ;  and  so  of  further  fulfil- 
ments, it  may  be  of  varied  scales  of  magnitude — but 
always  proportional — under  parallel  circumstances  of 
the  Church  and  of  the  world,  or  of  portions  of  either. 
This  truth  is  indeed  only  a  higher  way  of  saying  that 
'  History  repeats  itself,'  i.  e.  that  human  affairs  are  not 
the  sport  of  chance,  that  they  are  under  a  moral  govern- 
ment, and  that  a  uniform  one,  under  which  like  causes 

A  a  2 


356         in  later  History,  religious  a7zd  secular,     [lect. 

produce  like  effects.  The  immediate  historic  occasions 
and  fulfilments  of  Bible  Prophecy  may  be  said,  with 
the  exceptions  of  such  clearly  marked  portions  as  point 
without  question  and  by  the  very  nature  of  the  case  to 
the  still  future  end  of  all  things,  to  lie  wholly  within 
tlie  Bible  itself.  But  being,  as  they  are,  striking 
examples  and  specimen  cases  of  the  method  of  the 
Divine  Government,  and  of  the  principles  on  which 
that  Government  is  administered,  they  have  a  second- 
ary and  typical  reference — and  that  a  divinely  intended 
reference — of  the  most  instructive  and  important  kind, 
to  later  events,  persons,  and  circumstances,  of  a  similar 
chaiacter.  And  to  this  analogical  reference  we  can 
place  no  limit,  since  it  depends  only  on  the  recurrence 
of  an  analogous  condition  of  things. 

The  second  and  final  downfall  of  the  earthly 
Jerusalem,  itself  foreshadowed  by  the  first,  and  in- 
cluded together  with  the  first  in  the  vista  of  such 
prophecies  as  Leviticus  xxvi.  and  Deuteronomy  xxviii. 
foreshadows,  for  all  time,  the  doom  of  a  faithless  and 
apostate  Church  wheresoever  found.  This  permanent 
applicability  of  inspired  piophecy,  and  of  the  exem- 
plar cases  of  the  Mediator's  Government  of  His  Church 
recorded  in  the  Bible  history,  is  but  the  analogue  in 
the  spiritual  sphere,  in  the  religious  life  of  man,  of 
what  we  may  also  observe  in  the  natural  sphere  of 
man's  earthly,  civil,  and  social  life.  God's  dealings 
with  Egypt,  with  Nineveh,  with  Tyre,  with  the 
earthly  Babylon,  themselves  the  subjects  of  fore- 
warning prophecy,  are  again  but  patterns  and  ex- 
amples of  His  dealing   with   other  nations  and  cities 


vii.]  Examples  of  this,  in  the  case  357 

under  like  circumstances,  and  so  far  as  they  are  like. 
As  it  was  with  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  so  it  was  with 
Herculaneum  and  Pompeii.  As  it  was  with  the  literal 
Babylon,  so  with  pagan  Rome.  As  with  Tyre  and 
Egypt,  so,  in  their  secular  and  political  aspect,  has  it 
been  —  though  in  lighter  measure,  because  of  the 
Christian  remnant  within  them  —  with  Venice,  with 
Constantinople,  with  Spain,  and  with  Holland. 

173.  In  the  Christian  Church  it  may  be  that,  in  the 
latter  days,  t\\Q  falling-away  {air oa-racr la,  a^ostasia)  of 
which  Saint  Paul  speaks  (2  Thess.  ii)  may  bring  about 
an  awful  parallel  to  the  last  days  of  Jerusalem ;  and 
the  fearful  language  of  the  Apocalypse  may  receive 
its  final  illustration  in  the  case  of  once  Christian 
nations  into  whose  em^ty  house,  once  guarded  by  faith, 
the  evil  spirit,  which  had  been  exorcised  by  Christ, 
has  returned,  hringing  loith  him  seven  other  sj>irits  more 
wicked  than  himself,  and  so  making  their  last  state 
tvorse  than  their  first  [St.  Matt.  xii.  43-45)  ^  Meantime, 
the  history  of  the  once  flourisliing  Churches  of  the 
East,  of  Asia  Mmor,  and  of  North  Africa,  and,  more 

^  These  words  were  indeed  uttered  with  express  reference  to  the 
then  existing  generation;  as  is  clear  from  (i)  the  connection  (which 
see)  in  which  St.  Matthew  records  them,  and  (2)  from  the  closing  sen- 
tence which  he,  the  Hebrew  Evangelit^t,  preserves,  Fven  so  shall  it  be 
also  unto  this  wicked  generation.  St.  Luke,  in  tlie  parallel  passage 
(xi.  24-26),  introduces  the  saying  about  the  unclean  spirit  without  its 
introductory  connection  with  the  wickedness  oiih&t  evil  and  adulterous 
generation  of  Jews,  and  without  the  closing  sentence  above  quoted.  Do 
these  omissions  in  the  Gentile  Gospel — this  abstinence  from  pointing 
the  saying  directly  at  the  then  living  generation  of  Jews — contain 
a  hint  that  the  saying  may  be  analogously  true  in  Gentile  Churches 
also'? 


358  of  Nations  and  of  Churches. 

strikingly  still  of  Alexandria,  of  Constantinople,  or, 
nearer  home,  of  medieeval  Scotland  \  may  furnish 
examples,  in  varied  measure,  of  historic  parallel  to  the 
downfall  of  Jerusalem,  and  of  the  judicial  action  of 
Him  Who  was  seen  walking  in  the  midst  of  the  seven 
golden  candlesticks,  and  Who,  in  the  messages  to  the 
seven  Churches,  has  indicated,  for  all  time,  the  prin- 
ciples of  His  dealing  with  those  who  bear  His  Name, 
and  are  set  to  do  His  work  in  His  kingdom  of  heaven 
upon  earth. 

^  It  has  been  estimated  that  in  mediaeval  times  the  Catholic  Church 
owned  one-third  of  the  soil  of  the  kinp^dom  of  Scotland. 


LECTURE  VIII. 

THE   WORK   OF  THE   MEDIATOR  AFTER 
THE   ASCENSION. 

Hebrews  xii.  22.  'AAAa  irpoaeXrikvOaT^  Stwy  opet  kol  iruXet  ©eou 
(oji'Tos,  lepovaakijix  iirovpai'tio,  kol  fxvpidatv  ayytkiav,  Travrj-yvpei 
Kol  (KKKrja-iq  TipaiTOTOKOiv  iv  ovpavoHi  aiToyeypa[xix4va)v,  koL  KpLTij 
06(1)  navToiv,  KoX  TTvevp-acri  hiKaiinv  rereAetco/zercoy,  koX  hiaOriKr]^ 
vias  ixea-LTi]  'li]aov.  (But  ye  are  come  unto  mount  Sion^  and 
unto  the  city  of  the  living-  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem, 
and  to  an  innumerable  company  of"  angels,  to  the  general 
assembly  and  Church  of  the  firstborn^  which  are  enrolled 
in  Heaven,  and  to  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits 
of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the 
New  Covenant.) 

174.  The  judgment  upon  the  Jewish  Church,  de- 
cisively and  visibly  marked  by  the  destruction  of  the 
old  Jerusalem,  the  mystical  Babylon,  inaugurated  as 
decisively  the  times  of  the  Gentiles,  and  launched  the 
Catholic  Church  on  its  wonderful  career.  The  Gentiles 
ivhich  folloived  not  after  righteousness  attained  to  right- 
eousness, even  the  righteousness  which  is  of  faith,  accept- 
ing Him  as  Lord  and  King  Who  had  been  to  Israel  a 
stone  0/  stumhling  and  a  rock  of  offence,  but  Who,  fall- 
ing upon  them  in  awful  judgment,  had  ground  them,  as  a 
nation  and  a  polity,  to  poioder.  Only  the  election,  now 
merged  in  the  true,  the  spiritual,  Israel  of  God,  had 
obtained  that  which  had  been  the  great  end  of  their 
Church  and  nation,  the  reason  for  its  existence.      The 


360   The  temporary  rejection  of  the  ancient  Israel,  [lect. 

red  tvere  hlinded ;  cast  aivay,  like  branches  broken  off 
God's  good  olive  tree,  into  whose  place  the  Gentiles 
were  grafted  in.  So,  in  that  wonderful  Providence 
of  God,  the  thought  of  which,  with  its  ever  mingled 
mercy  and  judgment,  drew  from  8aint  Paul  the  burst 
of  adoring  amazement  which  closes  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  all  the  sub- 
sequent generations  of  the  Jewish  race,  themselves  not 
partakers  in  the  sin  of  their  fathers,  have  been  born 
into  that  condition  of  inherited  unbelief,  of  invincible 
ignorance,  and  (humanly  speaking)  inevitable  blind- 
ness, in  which,  for  this  age,  God  hath  shut  them  all  iq) 
together,  in  order  that,  in  some  way  known  unto  Him- 
self, He  may  have  mercy  u^on  all. 

175.  Satan,  who,  as  a  strong  man  armed,  had  reigned 
as  king,  nay  more,  as  the  god  of  this  loorld,  over  the 
Gentile  races  in  the  days  of  their  ignorance,  was  now 
dethroned.  A  stronger  than  he  had  come  vjyon  Him, 
and  met  him  on  his  own  ground,  the  world  of  man, 
which  he  had  invaded,  and  over  which  he  had  usurped 
authority.  Even  in  the  preliminary  stage  of  His  re- 
deeming work  the  Christ,  speaking  with  reference  to 
the  subjection  of  the  demons  to  His  delegated  repre- 
sentatives acting  in  His  Name,  had  said,  I  beheld  Satan 
as  lightning  fall  from  Heaven  (St.  Luke  x.  1 8).  Later, 
as  the  great  crisis  drew  on,  He  had  said,  on  the  third 
occasion  when  the  Father's  Voice  was  heard  from 
Heaven  (St.  John  xii.  23,  &c.),  Now  is  the  judgment  of 
this  world ;  noiv  shall  the  prince  of  this  ivorld  be  cast 
out.  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  ivill  draw 
all  men  toivard  Myself.     And   later  yet,  in  the  final 


VIII.]  The  Bmding  of  Satan.  361 

discourses  that  followed  the  great  self-oblation  of  the 
upper  chamber,  He  said,  projecting  His  and  the 
Apostles'  thoughts  onward  to  the  time  after  Pentecost, 
The  Paraclete  shall  convince  the  world  ahout  judg7nent, 
because  the  prince  of  this  ivorld  hath  heen  judged.  At 
last,  A  stronger  than  he  had  come  u]^on  him,  and  had 
overcome  him,  and  tahen  from  him  all  his  armour 
ivherein  he  t^'usted,  and  divided  his  spoils.  The  king 
most  mighty  of  the  forty -fifth  Psalm  had  girt  His  sword 
uj>on  His  thigh,  and  in  His  Majesty  had  begun  to  ride 
on  jprosjperously  on  behalf  of  truth  and  meekness  and 
righteousness.  The  rider  on  the  white  horse  of  the 
Apocalypse  was  gone  forth  coriquering  and  to  conquer. 
The  Kingdom  of  God  had  come  upon  the  earth 
(St.  Luke  xi.  20).  That  work  of  recovery  had  begun, 
the  ultimate  result  of  which  should  be  that  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  should,  fully  and  for  ever,  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ  {Rev.  xi. 
15,  16).  Thus  the  Millennial  Period  of  the  Apocalypse 
was  opened  by  the  binding  of  Satan,  the  great  ad- 
versary, the  secret  animating  spirit  of  the  rival  world- 
power  (see  Rev.  xiii.  2,  4).  His  action  was  restrained; 
so  that  wherever  the  Kingdom  of  God  came,  and  with 
it  the  new  spiritual  forces,  tlie  poicers  of  the  age  long 
looked  for,  but  now  come  (Heb.  ii.  5  ;  vi.  5  ;  ix.  9),  he  shoidd 
deceive  the  Gentiles  no  more,  till  the  thousand  years 
shoidd  be  fidfilled  {Rev.  xx.  2,  3).  Thenceforward,  from 
the  definite  setting  up  of  Christ's  Kingdom,  even  on 
earth  and  amid  the  circumstances  of  this  mortal  life  of 
man,  within  the  now  world-wide  Church  of  Christ,  as 
within  a  charmed   circle   held    for  Him    by  the   God- 


362  The  Reign  of  Christy  [lect. 

inspired,  God-supported,  faith  and  devotion  of  His 
believing  people  militant  in  the  power  of  His  Name, 
not  Satan,  but  the  Crucified,  is  King.  Much  more  does 
He  reign  in  and  for  the  Church  at  rest  in  that 
Paradise  %mt\iin  tlie  veil ;  wherein  are  stored,  their 
earthly  warfare  over,  tlie  ever-increasing  '  majority '  of 
redeemed  souls,  who  constitute  the  incomparably  larger 
portion  of  the  Church  which,  on  earth  or  within  the 
veil,  is  but  one  Communion  of  Saints,  one  Kingdom  of 
God.  Over  that  Kingdom,  from  His  ascended  glory, 
where  He  sits,  in  our  nature^^  on  the  throne  of  the 
Universe,  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  He  reigns,  the 
One  Mediator,  tlie  Man  Christ  Jesus,  the  Head  of 
the  Church  ;  and  shall  reign  until  He  hath  j)ut  all  His 
enemies  under  His  feet.  Moses  with  the  Elders  of 
Israel,  and  afterwards  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel,  had  seen 
Him  in  His  glory  under  the  old  dispensation.  Once 
more  the  Seer  of  the  Apocalypse  beheld  Him,  now 
presented  under  the  expressive  symbol  of  the  Lamb, 
that  is,  as  the  incarnate  and  once  suffering  Eedeemer, 
now  associated  in  equal  glory  with  Him  That  sat  on  the 
Throne ;  and  receiving,  as  within  the  Triune  Godhead, 
Which  was  manifested  in  Him,  the  worship  of  the 
Church,  of  the  Angels,  and  of  all  Creation  {Bev.  v)  \ 

^  Notwithstanding  the  distinction  between  Him  That  sat  on  the 
throne  and  the  Lamb,  I  incline  to  think  that  both  are  to  be  understood 
of  the  Son ;  the  first  of  the  Son  in  His  Eternal  and  Divine  Nature, 
as  the  Creator,  the  second  of  the  Son  as  the  Redeemer,  as  sacrificed, 
i.  e.  in  His  Human  Nature.  The  distinction  in  Dan.  vii.  between  the 
Ancient  of  Days  and  the  son  of  7nan  should  perhaps  be  understood 
in  the  same  way  (see  §  107).  Certainly  St.  John's  description  of  Him 
Whom  he  saw  walking  amid  the  seven  golden  candlesticks  I'ecalls  Daniel's 


VIII.]        and  of  His  Sainis,  in  and  with  Him,  363 

176.  He  reigns  not  alone.  To  a  wondrous  present 
reality  of  high  spiritual  privilege,  the  pledge  and  the 
earnest  of  future  manifested  glory,  God,  Who  is  rich  in 
mercy,  for  His  great  love  ivherewith  He  loved  us,  hath 
quichened  us  also  ivith  Christ ;  given  us  the  new  spiritual 
life,  in  Him  and  with  Him,  in  thefrst  Besurrection,  the 
resurrection  of  the  soul  to  grace  ;  and  so  hath  raised  us 
u^  together  ivith  Christ,  and  made  us  to  sit  together  loith 
Him  in  the  heavenly  flaces,  in  Christ  Jesus  {Ej)h.  ii.  4). 
His  people  also,  the  subjects  of  His  Kingdom,  the 
members  of  the  Church  which  is  His  hody,  has  Christ 
made  to  be  kings  and  iwiests  unto  God  and  His  Father 
(see  Exod.  xix.  5,  6  ;  Isa.  Ixi.  6  ;  2  Pet.  ii.  5,  9  ;  Rev. 
i.  6 ;  V.  10;  XX.  4),  and  to  live  and  reign  ivith  Him 
ujpon  (or  over)  the  ea7ih  (exi  rrj?  ytj^),  i.  e.  within  the 
visible  earthly  sphere  of  man's  present  life  \ 

How  are  we  to  understand  words  which  seem  so 
great,  especially  as  applied  to  anything  now  existing  ? 
Perhaps  the  following  considerations  may  help  us.  An 
ideal  redemption  is  depicted  in  the  New  Testament, 
especially  in  some  of  the  great  sayings  of  Christ — ideal, 
but  not  in  the  sense,  God  forbid,  of  its  being  unreal, 
unattained,  impossible ;   for,  in  itself,  and  as  regarded 

description  of  the  Ancient  of  Days.  The  words  spoken  by  Him  That 
sat  upon  the  throne,  in  Rev.  xxi.  5,  suit  perfectly  the  Son  in  His  divine 
Nature.  Or,  we  may  understand  it  of  the  Ti-iune  God,  as  Isa.  vi ;  but 
with  more  especial  reference  to  the  Son,  inasmuch  as  a  visible  form, 
and  that  human  (see  verses  i  and  5),  is  indicated.  See  Bp.  "Words- 
worth, ad  loc.  It  should  be  recollected  that  the  whole  description  is 
symbolical,  and  the  language,  as  it  were,  hieroglyphical. 

^  The  Westminster  Revisers  of  1881  read  in  Rev.  v.  10  ^aaiKtvuvcnv 
{they  do  reirjii)  for  ^aaiKfvaofifv  {ice  shall  reign). 


364  The  Ideal  of  Salvation  in  Christ,         [lect. 

from  the  point  of  view  of  the  finished  work  of  Christ, 
it  is  real  from  the  moment  of  the  Pentecostal  gift. 
To  us  who  are,  of  God's  unspeakable  mercy,  the  sub- 
jects of  it,  it  is  real  as  far  as,  at  each  moment  of  our 
spiritual  history,  we  grasp  it  with  living  faith,  and 
yield  ourselves  to  it  and  to  its  influences  with  answer- 
ing will.  We,  in  our  weakness  and  littleness  of  faith, 
in  our  slowness  of  heart  to  believe,  are  straitened  in 
ourselves,  and  almost  stagger  at  our  own  high  destiny; 
nay,  not  destiny,  for  that  is  future,  say  rather,  at  the 
greatness  of  our  present  joy.  According  to  thy  faith 
he  it  unto  thee  is  ever  true.  As  our  fiiith  is,  so  are  we. 
And  we,  in  a  lowering  atmosphere  of  weakly  faith, 
half-informed  and  so  half-hearted,  or  even  of  bold 
scoffing  unbelief — though  that  is  really  less  dangerous, 
for  it  rouses  and  stimulates  faith  by  reaction,  and 
provokes  enquiry,  which  always,  if  it  be  candid, 
strengthens  faith — we,  amid  these  adverse  influences, 
too  often  fail  to  grasp  and  to  appropriate,  and  so  to 
make  fruitful  within  us,  the  great  things  our  Lord  has 
done  for  us,  the  unspeakable  gifts  and  graces  He  has 
placed  within  our  reach.  Yet,  for  all  that,  the  Ideal 
is  true.  It  is  before  us,  above  us,  around  us,  within  us, 
secured  for  ever  and  immovable,  a  kingdom  ivhich  can- 
not he  shaken,  which  we,  so  far  as  concerns  God's  gift 
to  us,  God's  calling  of  us,  have  received.  It  may  be  ours, 
if  we  will ;  ours  in  present  conscious  joy,  ours  in  future 
everlasting,  ever-growing,  fulness,  if  we  holdfast  grace, 
whereby  we  may  serve  God  acceptably  ivith  reverence  and 
godly  fear  (see  Heh.  xii.  18-29).  {A'pioendix,  Note  13.) 
177.  What  is  this  Ideal  ?     How  shall  we  express  it  1 


VIII.]  the  present  Gift  of  Ete7'7ial  Life,  365 

I  answer,  It  is  Life  in  Christ,  life  moral  and  spiritual, 
life  eternal,  present  and  everlasting.  Death  is  the 
evil  one's  great  triumph.  Death,  spiritual,  moral, 
physical,  is  his  great  work  as  the  accursed  antagonist 
of  God,  and  tlie  slayer,  from  the  heginning,  of  man  made 
in  God's  hnage  and  Liheness.  The  Son  of  God,  the 
One  great  Mediator  of  life,  natural  and  spiritual,  to  all 
creation,  came  in  our  nature,  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil  (i  St.  John  iii.  8) ;  to  take  away  the  sin  of  the 
world ;  to  give  a  new  life  from  Himself,  the  Second 
Adam,  and  that  more  abundantly,  to  the  race  which, 
without  Him,  was,  and  must  remain,  dead  in  tresjyasses 
and  sins.  And  the  life  which  He  brou2;ht  to  man 
was  that  Life  which  is  in  Him,  the  God-Man,  ivithout 
measure  (St.  John  iii.  34) ;  and  which  overflows  from 
Him  to  us  ;  even  the  living  energy  of  the  creative 
Spirit  of  God,  the  Lord,  the  Life-Giver,  The  true 
conception  of  the  ideal  redemption,  and  of  salvation,  as 
Christ  has  procured  it  for  us,  and  offers  it  to  each  one 
severally  whom  God's  mysterious  election  has  called, 
and  has  brouo^ht  to  the  knowledo;e  of  Christ  in  this 
life,  is  that  it  is  Eternal  Life.  The  way  to  the  fuller 
and  more  fruitful  grasp  and  apprehension  of  that 
conception  is  simply  to  meditate  on  the  thought  of 
spiritual,  the  only  real,  life,  in  the  light  at  once  of  our 
own  experienced  need  and  of  our  Father's  divine  pro- 
vision for  that  need  in  and  through  Christ  our  Lord. 
So  meditating,  we  begin  to  see  light  in  His  light,  by, 
first,  realizing  how  real,  how  intolerable  a  death  is  the 
state  of  willing  slavery  to  sin,  of  estrangement  from 
God,   now,   in    a   fear  and   hatred  which    forecast    an 


o 


66  in  the ' First  Resurrection'  [lect. 


eternal  separation.  So  meditating,  the  inner  eye  is 
opened  to  spiritual  things ;  and  the  '  second  sight/ 
the  spiritual  sight,  of  faitli  awakes  within  us.  We 
realize,  with  growing  consciousness,  the  realities  of 
that  spiritual  world  with  which  we  find  ourselves,  as 
Christians,  in  relation.  We  grasp  Christ  and  His  work 
by  faith.  Justified  hy  faith  we  have  jpeace  ivith  God 
through  Him.  Peace  with  God — and  that,  first  and 
foremost,  in  the  sense  of  assured  and  abiding  forgive- 
ness of  our  sins  and  conscious  acceptance  with  Him  as 
His  sons  in  Christ — is  our  great,  our  standing  necessity. 
In  Christ  we  have  this  peace.  Then,  further,  we  feel 
the  blessedness  of  our  covenant-relation  as  initiated  and 
sealed,  in  abiding  efiect,  in  the  '  One  Baptism  for  the 
remission  of  sins,'  whereby  we  were  graciously  lifted 
out  of  the  natural  state  of  death,  and  new-born  into  the 
Family  and  Kingdom  of  God.  Then  we  know  that  by 
that  ingrafting  we  were  brought  into  contact  with  the 
new,  the  supernatural,  spiritual  life  which  circulates 
through  the  Body  of  Christ,  and  which  is  the  very 
Spirit,  the  very  Life,  of  God.  By  that  grace  we  are 
raised  with  the  first  Resurrection,  the  moral  and 
spiritual  resurrection ;  the  essential  resurrection,  for  it 
carries  with  it,  for  all  who  abide  in  it,  the  promise  of 
the  uninterrupted  growth  into  all  that  is  to  follow. 

Of  this  first  Resurrection  and  of  the  Life  Eternal 
into  which  a  man  is  born  thereby,  Christ  speaks  in  the 
saying  {St.  John  v.  24),  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
He  that  heareth  My  ivord,  and  helieveth  Him  that  sent 
Me,  hath  eternal  life,  and  cometh  not  into  judgment ; 
hut  is  ][)assed  from  death  unto  life.     And  He  speaks  of 


VIII.]  viz.  Of  the  Soul  to  Grace.  '^^'j 

it  as  a  present  thing,  resulting  at  once  from  the 
acceptance  of  the  Gospel  as  preached,  directly  or  in- 
directly, by  Himself;  for  He  adds,  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  the  hour  is  coming  (i.  e.  after  Pentecost)  and 
noio  is  (i.  e.  in  the  then  presence  and  teaching  of  the 
Incarnate  Mediator)  when  the  dead  (i.  e.  in  the  natural 
state  of  spiritual  death)  shall  hear  the  Voice  of  the  Son 
of  God;  and  they  that  hear  (i.  e.  with  willing  acceptance 
and  oLedience)  shall  live  ^ 

Once  in  this  Life  Eternal,  and  continuing  in  it,  the 
believer  has,  in  Christ's  Ideal,  no  death  to  fear.  The 
essential  chansfe  is  made.  TJiere  is  no  condemnation  to 
them  tvhich  are  in  Christ  Jesus  .  .  .  For  the  laio  of  the 
Sjnrit  of  Life  in  Christ  Jesus  has  made  them  free  from 
the  latv  of  sin  and  death.  Hence  Christ  can  say,  TVho- 
soever  liveth  and  helieveth  in  Me  shall  never  die;  i.  e.  the 

^  That  our  Lord  is  speaking  in  St.  John  v.  25,  26,  of  a  spiritual  re- 
surrection from  a  spiritual  death  is  evident  from  (i)  the  phrase  they 
that  hear,  implying  a  willing  reception  of,  and  attention  to,  the  voice  of 
the  Son  of  God.  There  is  nothing  like  this  in  the  contrasted  verse  28  ; 
for  all  that  are  in  the  graves  must  hear,  whether  they  will  or  not ; 
(2)  From  the  addition  and  now  is.  The  contrasted  bodily  resurrec- 
tion is  wholly  future.  (3)  All  that  are  in  the  graves  {28)  points  to 
the  physically  dead ;  and  so,  by  contrast,  shows  that  25  speaks  of 
S]nritual  death.  (4)  Shall  come  forth  (i.  e.  out  of  the  graves),  as  con- 
trasted with  shall  live,  points  to  the  same  interpretation.  Compare, 
for  the  present  gift  of  the  risen,  the  eternal,  life  to  the  regenerate 
believer  {St.  John  iii,  14-16,  36;  iv.  14;  vi.  40,  47,  51,  54-58; 
viii.  51  ;  X.  10,  28  ;  xi.  25,  26;  xvii.  3.  Romans  vi.  3-1 1  ;  viii.  i-n. 
Coloss.n.  12,  13;  iii.  1-4.  x  St.  John  v.  ii,  12).  This  life  is  real 
now,  though  often  feeble,  and  always  imperfect,  always  forfeitable  by 
lapse  into  unbelief  and  disobedience.  Faithfulness  and  2)atient  continu- 
ance in  well-doing  to  a  death  in  the  Lord  secure  it  for  ever.  Hence 
St.  John's  language  about  the  (present)  millennial  reign  with  Christ  of 
the  faithful  dead  within  tlie  veil  [Rtv.  xx.  4-6). 


368    The  full  Millennial  Reign  ^within  the  veil'  [lect. 

physical  death  to  which  our  mortal  hodies  are  still 
liahle  is  no  death  to  the  man,  the  self,  but  an  upward 
step  to  fuller  life,  and  so  a  gain,  being  the  introduction 
to  a  closer  nearness  to  Christ,  Who  has  abolished  death 
and  Irought  life  and  immortality  to  light  through  the 
Gospel  (2  Tim,  i.  10). 

1 78.  We  can  now  understand  that,  for  the  believer 
whose  life  is  in  Christ  (i.  e.  whose  life  is  Christ's  life  in 
him),  eternal  life  is  a  present  possession ;  and  the  same  in 
essence,  and  in  spiritual  reality  and  continuity,  whether 
here  or  within  the  veil.  Hence  we  can  understand 
how,  in  a  true  sense,  Christ's  faithful  people  live  and 
reign  with  Him  even  on  the  earth ;  though  it  be  true 
that  the  Millennial  Eeign  revealed  to  Saint  John  has 
its  truer  and  fuller,  though  now  present  and  contempo- 
raneous, realization,  both  objectively  and  subjectively, 
only  for  the  redeemed  in  Paradise,  in  the  Jerusalem 
which  is  ahove  [Gal.  iv.  26;  Heh.  xii.  22;  Bev.  iii. 
T  2  ;  xxi.). 

To  the  eye  of  faith,  which  apprehends  present 
spiritual  fact,  the  work  of  the  One  Mediator  is,  though 
waiting  as  yet  for  its  full  manifestation  in  the  final 
consummation,  still  so  far  in  itself  complete,  as  that, 
the  dividing  barrier  of  sin  and  death  being  done  away, 
the  seen  and  the  Unseen  are  already  reconciled  and 
made  one.  The  Communion  of  Saints  embraces  both. 
Even  to  Christians  still  in  the  flesh  it  is  said,  Ye  are 
come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  Living 
God,  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerahle 
company  of  angels,  to  the  general  assemhly  and  Church 
of  the  Firsthorn  who  are  enrolled  in  heaven,  and  to 


VIII.]    spiritually  one  with  the  Church  on  earth;      369 

Go^  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men, 
i.  e.  the  faithful  departed  of  the  older  Dispensations, 
now  at  length,  through  the  work  of  Christ,  made  i^er- 
feet,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant. 
Already  our  citizenship  is  in  heaven.  (Phili^p.  iii.  20.) 
Already  we  are  fellow-citizens  ivith  the  saints  and  of 
the  household  of  God.  {Eph.  ii.  19.)  Already  we 
belong  to  the  Jerusalem  which  is  above,  which  is  the 
mother  of  us  all.  {Gal.  iv.  26.)  And  the  spiritual 
greatness  of  our  calling  sheds  its  heavenly  glory  and  its 
beauty  over  the  oft  darksome  and  toilsome  lot,  in  this 
world,  of  many  a  lowly  Christian  life  that  is  lived  in 
the  light  of  that  faith,  under  the  observation  of  scarcely 
any  eyes  but  those  of  God  and  His  holy  angels. 
Gloria  haec  est  omnibus  Sanctis  ejus.  Such  honour  have 
all  His  saints  (Ps.  cxlix.  9) ;  and,  perhaps,  most  of  all 
those  who  are  His  secret  ones. 

1 79.  This  now  actual  spiritual  unity  of  Heaven  and 
earth  finds  its  expression  in  the  Worship  of  the  Church. 
In  her  holy  services,  and  most  completely  and  charac- 
teristically in  the  sacred  mystery  of  her  Eucharistic 
Sacrifice  and  Communion,  believers,  as  an  holy  and 
royal  priesthood,  permitted  to  offer  up  sjpiritual  sacri- 
fices acceptable  to  God  through  Jesus  Christ  (i  Pet.  ii.  5 
and  9)  have  access  through  Him,  by  One  Spirit,  unto 
the  Father.  In  our  solemn  sacramental  Liturgy,  the 
only  full  expression  of  our  worship,  the  only  worthy 
exhibition  of  our  relation  to  God  as  His  redeemed 
children,  we  lift  up  our  hearts  unto  the  Lord.  From 
that  moment  we  are  more  in  Heaven  than  on  earth. 
The  veil   is   done  away   between   them  ;    and   '  with 

Bb 


370  and  one  in   Worship,  especially  [lect. 

angels  and  archangels,  and  with  all  the  company 
of  heaven,'  we  laud  and  magnify,  in  the  threefold 
Sandus  which  is  part  of  the  revealed  worship  of 
Heaven,  Him  of  Whose  glory  not  heaven  only  but 
also  tJie  ivJiole  earth  is  full  {Isaiah  vi.  3  ;  Eev.  iv.  8). 

180.  The  hfe  which  is  in  harmony  with  this  worship 
is  the  Hfe  akeady  of  Heaven  upon  earth.  The  all- 
inclusive  ordinance  of  the  Holy  Communion,  the  very 
crown  and  sum  of  the  Gospel,  as  it  enables  God's  for- 
given children  to  plead  before  Him  on  earth,  even  as 
the  Mediator  Himself  ever  pleadeth  it  still  in  Heaven, 
that  One  and  only  Sacrifice  (of  the  Lamh  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world)  which  is  the  one  and  only 
ground  and  means  of  that  effectual  atonement  on 
which  alone  their  hopes  depend,  so  it  conveys  to 
them,  presently,  that  continual  cleansing,  refreshment, 
and  renewal  which,  amid  the  infirmities  and  trials  of 
this  present  life,  they  continually  need.  It  maintains 
and  strengthens  their  living  union  with  Christ,  and, 
in  and  through  Him,  with  God.  For  it  is  the  actual 
communication  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  (i  Cor. 
X.  16)  as  a  quickening  Spirit  (i  Cor.  xv.  45)  to  us  in 
our  whole  nature  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  It  is  the 
living  link  which  binds  each  quickened  soul  to  the 
One  Mediator.  It  is  the  chief  of  the  joints  and  hands 
whereby  all  the  Body,  having  nourishment  ministered 
from  the  Head,  is  knit  together  (Col.  ii.  19) ;  keeping 
up  in  each  his  membership  in  Christ's  Body,  and  so 
securing  for  each  that  constant  inflowing  of  the  ful- 
ness of  Christ's  life  whereby  the  whole  Body  increaseth 
with  the.  increase  of  God.      It  maintains  in  each  one 


VIII.]  ill  the  Holy  Communion.  371 

that  eternal  life  of  wliicli  we  have  spoken.  And  it 
carries  with  it  the  sure  promise  of  that  bodily  re- 
surrection and  glorification  ai  the  last  day  {St.  John  vi. 
39,  40,  44,  54)  which  shall  be  the  token  of  the  realized 
completeness  of  our  salvation,  the  means  of  the  final 
manifestation  of  the  Sons  of  God  {Rom.  viii.  19),  when 
the  righteous  shall  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom 
of  their  Father  {St.  Matt.  xiii.  43),  and  shall  be  as  the 
angels  of  God  in  Heaven ;  nay  more,  shall  be  lihe  Him 
(i  St.  John  iii.  2)  Who  died  for  them  and  rose  again ; 
for  He  shall  change  the  hody  of  our  humiliation  that  it 
may  he  fashioned  conformahly  to  the  Body  of  His  glory ^ 
according  to  the  tvorking  ivherehy  He  is  ahle  even  to 
subject  all  things  unto  Himself  {Philip^,  iii.  21). 

181.  Looking  forward  through  the  present  Hfe  to  this 
full  consummation  and  bliss,  both  in  body  and  soul, 
which  is  daily  presented  to  our  faith  and  hope  in  the 
closing  words  of  the  Creeds ;  and  feeling  that  he  has 
already  received,  in  Christ,  a  kingdom  that  cannot  he 
moved,  and  is  already  introduced  to,  and  surrounded 
by,  eternal  realities  most  blessed;  the  Christian,  at 
peace  with  God,  and  delivered  from  the  heathen's 
perpetual  hondage  through  the  fear  of  death,  does 
indeed,  in  a  most  true,  albeit  a  most  unworldly  sense, 
reign,  with  a  royalty  of  which  the  most  highminded 
Stoic  never  dreamed.  The  Christian  knows  that,  with 
the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith, 
he  is  delivered  from  the  various  forms  of  the  world's 
degrading  bondage,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the 
eyes,  or  the  ^ride  of  life;  and  has  learnt  to  estimate 
more  truly  the  dignity  and  the  capacity  of  that  human 

B  b  2 


372  Christ's  provision,  in  the  Chtcrch,        [lect. 

nature  which  the  hopeless  pessimism  of  much  modern 
anti-Christian  thought  would  lower  to  a  depth  whence 
only  its  misery  could  redeem  it  from  contempt. 

182.  Yet  the  very  grandeur  of  such  a  '  state  of  salva- 
tion '  secures  humility ;  for  in  this  stage,  however  real, 
it  is  not  indefectible.  To  embrace  with  a  fuller  faith 
the  glory  of  his  calling  is  for  the  thoughtful  Christian 
only  to  feel  more  acutely  the  contrast  of  liis  own 
shortcoming  and  unworthiness.  Even  a  Paul  must 
say,  Not  as  though,  I  had  already  attained,  or  am  as 
yet  made  jyerfed ;  hut  I  j^ress  on,  if  that  I  may  lay 
hold  of  that  for  which  also  I  was  laid  hold  of  hy  Christ 
Jesus.  (Philijyp'  iii.  1 2.)  Even  a  Paul,  straining  for- 
ward unto  those  things  ivhich  are  in  front,  must  press 
on  toward  the  goal  unto  the  'prize  of  our  calling  above 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  (ver.  14),  if  hy  any  means  he 
might  attain  unto  that  rising  up  from  out  of  the  general 
body  of  the  dead  {e^avacrramv  t>V  e'/c  vcKpwv,  a  peculiar 
phrase  used  only  in  this  place),  which  is  the  croivn 
of  life  for  those  who  are  faithfid  unto  death,  and 
which  the  language  about  the  millennial  reign  seems 
to  assign  already,  in  some  high  unspeakable  spiritual 
reality,  to  the  saints  in  the  Unseen,  as  their  present 
reward,  the  outgrowth,  the  secured  further  develop- 
ment, in  unbroken  continuity,  of  that  eternal  life  which 
had  been  begun  in  them  even  while  still  m  the  flesh ; 
and  the  pledge  of  the  assured  consummation  of  their 
adoption,  in  the  future  redemption  of  their  hodies. 

183.  Forgiveness,  peace,  life,  in  and  through  the  King- 
dom of  God  on  earth,  and  through  its  life-giving  Sacra- 
ments and  means  of  grace,  are  the  blessings  enjoyed  by 


VIII.]  for  the  continued  application  of  His  Work,     ^*]i 

the  believer  from  the  finished  work  of  the  One  Mediator 
the  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  of  that  Kingdom  which 
is  the  CathoHc  Church.  For  in  that  Kingdom  Christ 
has  made  a  perfect  provision  for  the  conveyance  and 
application  of  all  the  benefits  of  His  work  of  re- 
demption to  individual  souls  in  each  generation.  For 
this  purpose,  among  others,  the  Catholic  Church  exists, 
as  a  divinely-organized  Body  with  a  divinely-ordained 
constitution  and  ofiicers.  In  the  place  of  Christ's 
visible,  bodily,  local,  limited  presence  is  now  substi- 
tuted an  invisible  but  universal  presence,  in  and  with 
His  Body  mystical,  through  His  Holy  Spirit.  To  that 
Body  he  gave  the  great  commission  to  represent  Him, 
to  act  in  His  Name,  to  carry  on  His  work  ;  As  My 
Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you.  And  when 
He  had  said  this,  He  breathed  on  them,  and  said  unto 
them,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  He  had  already 
provided,  in  the  creation,  and  in  the  acknowledged 
position,  of  the  Apostolic  College,  for  the  orderly  ex- 
hibition of  tliat  living  energy  which  He  then  breathed 
into  His  Body.  Though  all  were  priests  and  kings,  yet 
were  there  those  who  were  so,  by  His  own  appoint- 
ment, in  a  special  sense,  and  with  a  special  ministry, 
as  the  recognized  executive  ofiicers  and  organs  of  His 
Body.  They  were  to  act,  and  through  them  the  Body 
was  to  act,  in  Christ's  Name  (i  Cor.  v.  4  ;  2  Cor.  ii.  10), 
and  '  by  His  commission  and  authority.'  (Article  XXVI.) 
1 84.  For  the  mediatorial  work  of  the  Son  of  God,  at 
length  fully  organized  in  its  completeness  by  His 
great  redemptive  acts  as  Incarnate,  had  now  to  be  car- 
ried on  and  applied  for  that  which  was  the  great  object 


3  74     through  the  Operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,    [lect. 

of  it  all,  the  bringing  back  man,  and  man's  world,  to 
God,  to  a  fuller  life  in  God  than  had  belonged  to  man 
even  as  unMlen.  It  was  to  be  carried  on  at  once  both 
in  Heaven  and  on  earth,  which  were  now  made  one  ; 
in  Heaven  openly,  immediately,  by  the  direct  personal 
action  of  the  Mediator  Himself  as  the  High  Priest  of 
the  New  Covenant,  Who,  tuithin  the  veil,  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession  for  us,  pleading  evermore,  as  the 
Lamh  as  it  had  been  slain,  His  own  one  offering  of 
Himself;  presenting  evermore,  with  absolute  accept- 
ance, before  the  Father,  the  worship  of  His  redeemed 
Church  ;  and  showering  down  the  Father's  answering 
grace  upon  it.  On  earth  also  in  deepest,  highest 
spiritual  reality,  though  all  invisibly  to  the  eye  of 
sense,  was  the  same  work  to  be  carried  on  by  the  ever- 
present  operation  of  the  same  Mediator,  Whose  promise 
was.  Where  tivo  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  My 
Name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them,  and,  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  consummation  of  the 
age.  The  Agent  of  this  spiritual  presence,  the  living 
Power  and  informing  Force  of  this  spiritual  opera- 
tion, within  the  militant  Church,  is  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God ;  using  (since  the  conditions  of  our  earthly 
life  render  such  intervention  necessary  for  man's  re- 
ligious as  for  his  natural  welfare)  the  present,  local, 
visible,  ministrations  of  men,  called  and  empowered  by 
Him  '  for  the  office  and  work  of  priests  in  the  Church 
of  God.'  This  subordinate,  delegated,  ministrative 
priesthood  is  simply  the  visible  instrument  whereby 
the  one  and  only  High  Priest  exhibits  and  exercises  on 
earth   His   own   sole   inalienable   and   ever-continuing 


VIII.]  and  a  ministrative  priesthood.  375 

Priesthood.  He  ordained  it  originally  in  the  College  of 
the  Apostles  ;  who  were  not  His  '  successors,'  but  only 
the  visible  representatives  of  Him  Who  still  lived,  and 
Who,  though  invisible,  was  and  is,  since  His  Ascension 
and  His  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  more  than  ever  present, 
Jilling  all  things  {E]jili.  iv.  10).  But  the  Apostles,  like 
the  Levitical  priests,  were  not  suffered  to  continue  hy 
reason  of  death  {Heh.  vii.  23).  Successors  they  must 
have  ;  for  the  work  of  Christ  must  be  as  near,  and  His 
Church  as  effectually  operative,  to  each  succeeding 
generation  as  to  the  first  believers  after  Pentecost. 
Hence — and  we  cannot  doubt,  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples Avherein  the  Lord  Himself  had  instructed  them, 
when,  during  the  great  Forty  Days,  He  s'pake  unto  them 
of  the  things  j^ertaining  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven — the 
Apostles  provided  such  successors  in  the  local  Episco- 
pate, wherein  the  Christian  priesthood,  in  its  totality 
of  powers  and  responsibilities,  has  ever  since  been 
vested  in  chief;  to  be  exercised  locally,  in  clearly 
specified  departments  of  spiritual  function,  for  the 
ordinary  charge  of  Christ's  flock,  through  the  subordi- 
nate delegated  service  of  those  of  the  second  order, 
who  receive  their  commission  through  the  bishops,  as 
they  through  their  predecessors. 

185.  But  behind,  and  above,  and  through,  as  well  as 
besides  and  beyond,  all  these  visible  arrangements — 
which,  depending  on  men  which  have  infirmity,  are,  and 
must  be,  ever  liable  to  defect  in  working — stands  and 
acts,  in  His  unapproachable  prerogative,  the  Great  High 
Priest  (tcov  dylcov  Aeirovpyo?  Heh.  viii.  2),  the  Minister 
of  the  true  Tahernacle,  giving  power  and  efficiency  to 


376        The  One  Mediator  ever  acts  invisibly,    [lect. 

the  means  and  ministers  of  grace  which  are  His  own 
ordinance ;  yet  visiting  also,  in  direct  and  immediate 
action,  through  His  Holy  Sj^tirit,  the  hearts  and  souls, 
individually  and  severally,  whom  the  Father  has  given 
Him,  and  has,  by  His  Providence,  called  '  to  the  know- 
ledge of  His  grace  and  faith  in  Him ;'  knitting  each 
one  directly  to  God  in  the  one  Communion  of  Samts, 
which  is  His  own  Body  mystical,  and  assuring  therein 
to  each  separate  baptized  soul,  according  to  its  need  of 
the  moment,  an  open  access  to  Himself,  and,  through 
Himself,  to  the  Father ;  vouchsafing  ever  to  each 
several  living  member  in  the  Body  His  own  indwelhng 
presence  in  the  believing  heart,  and  His  own  ever 
ready  sympathy  and  loving  help.  It  is  these  constant 
ever-present  blessings  that  make  the  gracious  work  of 
the  One  Mediator  to  be  to  even  the  humblest  Christian 
a  fact  of  his  daily  and  hourly  experience.  Thus,  the 
Spirit  of  God,  which  he  has,  and  knows  that  he  has, 
though  only  in  and  through  Christ,  heareth  loitness 
with  his  own  spirit — a  witness  within  himself — that  he 
is  the  child  of  God,  and  that  God  is  indeed  a  Father, 
loving,  and  ready  to  help.     {Apj)endix,  Note  14.) 

186.  The  living  Church  of  God  on  earth  is  at  once  the 
outcome  and  the  depositary  of  these  supernatural  forces 
and  agencies.  Hers  they  are,  through  the  grace  of 
her  Founder  and  Head,  her  Bridegroom  and  her  Lord. 
By  them  she  lives  in  Him ;  with  the  promise  that,  as 
a  whole,  the  powers  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness  and 
of  death  shall  never  jprevail  against  her.  For  her,  and 
through  her,  as  the  city  set  on  an  hill  that  cannot  he 
hid,  the  Mediator  exercises  on  earth,  for  the  salvation 


VIII.]    in  His  CJmrch ;  as  Prophet ;  as  Priest,      377 

of  all  men,  His  threefold  function  of  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King. 

First,  as  Prophet ;  His  inspiration — acting  on  His  own 
earlier  utterances  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  well  as  on 
His  later  utterances  in  the  flesh  immediately  prepara- 
tory to  the  New  Covenant — revealed  to  the  first  Church, 
from  Pentecost  onwards,  and  to  the  Church  of  all  time, 
all  necessary  truth  as  to  God,  His  loving  Fatherhood 
and  His  purpose  of  mercy  towards  mankind,  and  as  to 
His  own  Person  and  office  and  His  redeeming  work. 
His  mercy  provided  that  the  preservation  and  trans- 
mission of  that  revealed  truth  should  not  depend  on 
the  uncertainties  of  merely  natural  human  tradition, 
either  oral  or  written.  He  guided  its  first  authorita- 
tive teachers  to  commit  it  to  writing,  under  special  in- 
spiration, for  all  time.  And  so,  in  the  later  volume  of 
Holy  Scripture,  completing  the  earlier,  the  Incarnate 
Word,  as  the  Final  Prophet,  reveals  God  to  man ;  ap- 
pointing His  Church  the  while  to  be  '  the  witness  and 
keeper '  of  that  revelation  ;  and  not  that  only,  but  also, 
through  that  unction  from  the  Holy  One  wherewith  she 
was  anointed  from  the  first,  the  one  authoritative  judge 
of  its  true  meaning.  Thus,  in  all  that  it  most  concerns 
man  to  know  for  his  highest  welfare,  now  and  here- 
after, the  Church  is  the  Light  of  the  Woylcl,  shining  by 
the  Light  of  Him  to  Whom  it  is  her  one  work  to 
bring  all  who  do  not  hate  the  light,  but  will  come  to  it. 

187.  Christ's  priestly  action,  through  the  Church  and 
her  ministry,  conveys  and  seals,  to  the  penitent  and  be- 
lieving, all  needful  grace,  whether  of  initial  forgiveness 
and  regeneration  or  of  continual  renewal  and  progressive 


2,yS  especially  through  the  Sacraments ;        [lect. 

sanctificution.  For  this  work  He  uses  that  sacramenta] 
system,  whereby  an  inward  gift  of  grace  is  connected 
with  an  outward  and  visible  sign,  which  is  one  of  the 
special  features  of  His  Church  as  a  divine  and  super- 
natural institution.  This  principle  (besides  the  great 
example  of  the  Incarnation  itself)  is  unmistakeably  in- 
dicated on  those  three  cardinal  occasions  that  mark  the 
three  stages  of  the  Saviour's  Work ;  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  Himself  in  His  Baptism,  by  which  gift  He  was 
constituted  the  Messiah ;  His  preliminary  communica- 
tion of  the  Spirit  to  His  Body  on  the  Easter  night ; 
and  His  plenary  gift  of  the  same  Spirit  on  the  Day  of 
Pentecost.  That  gift,  then  fully  given,  was  the  all- 
inclusive  Sacrament.  It  united,  for  all  needs  and  pur- 
poses of  spiritual  life  and  action,  corporate  or  indi- 
vidual, the  Body  to  the  Head.  Of  the  informing 
power  and  energy  so  given — involving  an  extension  of 
the  Incarnation  from  the  Son  of  God  as  glorified  man 
to  the  living  members  of  His  Body — all  other  sacra- 
mental ordinances  are  but  particular  examples,  sub- 
ordinate and  special  forms.  In  the  highest  of  these 
forms,  the  Holy  Communion,  as  indeed  in  all  the  acts 
of  His  Church  done  in  His  Name,  Christ  Himself  is 
the  real,  though  unseen,  Operator,  the  one  true  Priest. 
Through  it  He  pleads  on  earth,  liidden  in  spiritual 
mystery,  that  one  and  only  Sacrifice  of  Himself,  once 
made,  which  He  pleads  openly  and  immediately  in 
Heaven ;  while  His  Church,  acting  by  her  priesthood, 
pleads  it  through  Him,  as  her  highest,  her  all-inclusive, 
act  of  worship.  Through  it  also  He  Who  gave  Him- 
self, His  flesh  and  blood,  as  the  true  Paschal  Lamb, 


VIII.]  a7id  also  as  King,  claiming  379 

the  Bread  of  Life,  to  the  Apostles  in  the  upper 
chamber,  gives  Himself  now,  by  the  hands  of  their 
successors,  to  nourish  the  souls  of  His  people,  and  to 
preserve  them,  body  and  soul,  unto  everlasting  life ; 
communicating  to  each,  in  heavenly  reality,  His  own 
God-penetrated  humanity.  His  human  nature,  so  made 
to  each  a  qiiickening  S2>irit,  the  one  antidote  to  the 
flesh  and  Hood,  the  old  nature,  of  the  first  Adam  which 
is  in  lis  all,  and  counterworking  it  in  a  growing  con- 
formity to  Himself.  Nothing  less  real  than  this  will 
satisfy  the  language  of  the  Apostle :  Tlie  cui)  of  Uess- 
ing  which  we  hless,  is  it  not  the  communication  of  the 
Blood  of  Christ?  The  hread  ivhich  we  hreah  is  it  not 
the  commnnication  of  the  Body  of  Christ?  (i  Cor.  x.  16). 
Nothing  less  real  than  this  will  reach  down  to  the 
deeplying  bases  of  our  subconscious  being ;  or  heal  and 
cleanse  the  innermost  springs  of  our  tainted  humanity, 
in  body,  soul,  and  spirit. 

188.  Passing  to  the  third  function  of  the  Christ :  In 
the  Church  on  earth,  as  in  the  Jerusalem  ahove,  and  over 
'Angels  and  Archangels  and  all  the  company  of  Heaven,' 
the  Incarnate  Mediator  reigns  as  Lord  and  King.  His 
Law — the  law  of  absolute  and  perfect  moral  righteous- 
ness and  truth — is  the  acknowledged  rule  and  standard 
for  all  His  people  ;  a  law  reaching  to  the  minutest 
details  of  conduct  even  in  thought  and  feeling ;  a  law 
finding  its  highest  expression  in  a  supreme  personal 
devotion  to  Himself,  as  the  one  supreme  and  perfect 
example  and  pattern,  the  master,  and  the  owner,  of  the 
Christian's  whole  self. 

The  Christian  Society  is  the  Kingdom  of  the  righteous 


380  the  allegiance  and  service  of  all  [lect. 

King.  It  exists  by  its  allegiance  to  Him.  Its  work 
is  to  reconquer  the  world  for  Iliai ;  and  to  make  His 
law  of  moral  righteousness,  justice,  purity,  and  love 
prevail  among  mankind,  until  the  evils  that  afflict 
humanity  are  done  away  by  a  willing  conversion  of 
man's  will  to  God,  and  so  God's  Kingdom  comes  in 
such  wise  that  His  will  shall  be  done  in  eartli  as  it  is 
in  Heaven.  For  this  Christ  died ;  for  this  Christ  lives 
and  reigns ;  for  this,  through  His  Church  on  earth  and 
her  children,  so  far  as  they  are  faithl'ul  to  their  glorious 
calling,  Christ  works  still  among  mankind,  that  He  may 
bring  men  back  to  God,  and  undo  the  work  of  the  devil. 
189.  Passing  by  the  mystery  of  His  relation,  in  this 
life  or  in  the  great  Unseen,  present  or  future,  to  the 
masses  of  Heathendom  and  to  the  Jewish  race,  it  be- 
hoves us  to  remember  that,  at  least  for  professedly 
Christian  nations,  churches,  institutions,  their  relation 
of  earnest  loyalty  and  faithfulness,  or  otherwise,  to  Him 
and  to  the  beneficent  work  of  His  Kingdom,  is  decisive 
of  their  destiny;  since  for  the  w^ork  of  that  Kingdom, 
and  for  the  glory  of  its  King,  they  exist,  as  means  to 
ends.  Christ's  law  is  the  law  of  right.  His  Kingdom 
is  the  kingdom  of  light,  of  purity,  of  peace,  of  love, 
of  brotherly  kindness  between  man  and  man,  between 
class  and  class  ;  the  kingdom  of  hope,  for  time  and  for 
eternity,  and  of  endless  progress  for  human  nature.  Re- 
sistance to  that  law,  opposition  to  that  Kingdom  and 
hindrance  of  its  work,  are  high  treason  against  hu- 
manity ;  and  seal,  after  whatever  warning,  the  doom 
of  all,  individuals  or  societies,  who  in  unprincipled  and 
reckless  self-seeking  commit  themselves  to  such  courses. 


VIII.]  to  Himself  and  to  His  Kingdom,  '^^'^  i 

The  higli-handed  oppression,  nay,  the  negative,  cold- 
hearted,  indifferent  neglect  of  even  the  least  and  lowest 
of  those  who,  in  Christ's  wide  sense,  are  our  neighhours, 
is  never  overlooked,  forgotten,  or  forgiven  by  Him 
Wlio  said,  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least 
of  these  My  brethren,  ye  did  it  not  to  Me.  His  motto 
truly  is — and  it  is  a  worthy  blazon  for  the  true  '  King 
of  men,'  the  King  of  kings — '  Homo  sum  ;  nihil  humani 
alienum  a  Me  puto '  (I  am  a  Man ;  nought  that  is 
human  deem  I  strange  to  Me).  His  sentence  is,  That 
it  were  letter  for  any  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged 
about  his  nech,  and  he  ivere  droivned  in  the  dej^th  of  the 
sea,  than  that  he  should  offend  one  of  His  little  ones 
{St.  Matt,  xviii.  6-10).  H  we  would  know  the  true 
'enthusiasm  of  humanity'  we  must  learn  it  in  the 
school  of  Christ.  If  we  would  promote  the  true  brother- 
hood of  man  we  must  study  its  deep  underlying 
principle  at  the  feet  of  Him  Who  '  for  us  men,  and  for 
our  salvation,  came  down  from  heaven,  and  was  in- 
carnate by  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
was  made  man/  that  He  might  seek  and  save  that 
which  was  lost,  and  might  lay  down  His  Ife  for  His 
friends.  The  call  to,  and  the  opportunity  for,  faithful 
service  to  Christ  as  King,  and  loving  unselfish  labour 
in  the  cause  of  man,  come,  and  with  sufficient  plain- 
ness, to  each  generation,  in  the  order  of  that  over- 
ruling providence  of  God  which  controls  all  things, 
alike  in  the  spiritual  and  in  the  natural  sphere,  in  the 
affairs  of  men,  through  the  universal  mediation  of  the 
Eternal  Son.  It  is  the  appointed  task,  and  the  duty 
of  each  generation  to  discern  the  signs  of  its  own  time^ 


o 


82       being  the  Governour  and  y^idge  of  all.    [lect. 


to  watch  for  the  iim,e,  and  the  special  form,  of  its  own 
visitation;  and,  at  least  in  its  own  day,  to  hnoio,  and 
to  heed,  the  things  that  helong  unto  its  ^eace  {St.  Luke 
xix.  41-44). 

190.  For  the  King  is  also  the  Judge.  Above  the 
Church  and  above  the  world,  above  the  whole  life  of 
man  in  whatever  condition  or  relation,  He  sits  en- 
throned in  majesty  supreme ;  wielding,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  His  righteous  government  as  of  His  redeeming 
work,  all  'power  in  heaven  and  in  earth ;  judging  com- 
munities, nations,  classes,  Churches,  all  those  special 
associations  and  combmations  of  men  which  belong  to 
this  present  life  only ;  judging  also,  in  their  several, 
their  incommunicable,  responsibility,  all  men's  indi- 
vidual souls,  according  to  those  their  infinitely  various 
relations  to  Himself,  to  His  Moral  Law,  and  to  the 
calls  and  opportunities  which  He  has  given  them, 
which  He  alone  can  know;  storing  up  the  materials  for 
His  future  righteous  Final  Judgment  of  each  separate 
soul  in  the  Great  Day. 

191.  We  ventured  humbly  to  conjecture  (J  131)^  va 
the  light  of  God's  evident  purpose  in  human  history, 
what  might  have  followed,  possibly,  had  the  ancient 
Israel  of  God  proved  faithful  to  their  high  vocation 
and  their  widespread  opportunities  for  good.  What 
shall  we  Christians  say,  as  we  cast  our  eyes  back  across 
the  nearly  nineteen  centuries  of  the  chequered  history 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  ?  Have  they  to  whom 
it  was  committed  hr ought  forth  the  fruits  thereof  them- 
selves, or  laboured  as  they  ought  to  extend  its  blessings 
to  others  as  yet  outside  1 


VIII.]  Evil  consequences  of  the  '^Z'^ 

And  what  have  been  the  manifest  consequences  of 
faikire  and  of  unfaithfuhiess  \ 

We  can  hut  sketch  them  in  outline.  Yet  the  Chris- 
tian student  can  never  refuse  to  admit  as  certainly 
among  them  the  generally  slow  progress  from  the 
first ;  and,  next,  the  desolation  of  the  Christian  East 
and  of  Northern  Africa  by  the  scourge  of  Islam  % 
Surely  tlie  scdt  had  lost  its  savour,  ere  it  could  be  so 
cast  out  and  trodden  underfoot  of  men !  Surelv  it 
was  He  Who  is  ever  saying  to  each  one  of  His 
local  Churches  I  knoiv  thy  loorks.  Who  thus  in  judg- 
ment removed  His  own  candlesticks  out  of  their  j^Iace  ! 
{Eev.  ii.  5). 

Tlie  second  great  and  abiding  disaster  induced  by 
the  unfaithfulness  of  Christians  to  the  spirit  of  Christ 
and  of  His  Gospel  is  the  breach  of  unity ;  first,  be- 
tween East  and  West,  for  which  the  arrogant  pre- 
tensions of  the  see  of  Home  must  be  held  mainly  re- 
sponsible ;  and,  later,  within  the  West  itself,  when  the 
further  growth  of  those  pretensions,  and  the  only  too 
successful  resistance  to  all  attempts  at  improvement 
had  brought  about  the  intolerable  state  of  things  which 
resulted  in  the  Reformation,  and  in  the  inevitable 
severance — it  would  seem,  for  ever — of  English-speak- 
ing Christianity  from  the  Catholicism  of  Continental 
Europe. 

Had  the  earlier  movements  of  the  fifteenth  century 
towards  the  reform  of  acknowledged  abuses  in  doctrine 
and  practice  been  welcomed  and  guided  by  the  then 
ecclesiastical  authorities,  at  Rome  and  elsewhere,  it  is 
conceivable  that  unmixed  good  might  have  resulted 


384  unfaithfulness  of  Christians.  [lect. 

to  Western  Christendom  and  beyond  it.  Delay  and 
resistance,  in  this  as  in  other  instances,  largely  turned 
what  might  have  been  wholesome  reform  and  recovery 
into  destructive  revolution,  except  in  England;  and 
the  present  religious  condition  of  Continental  Europe, 
whether  among  Protestants  or  Eoman  Catholics,  is  the 
unhappy  result.  The  Church  of  England  did  reform 
herself;  though  at  the  cost  of  a  separation  and  an 
isolation  of  which,  though  the  guilt  lies  not  at  her 
door,  the  depressing  effects  have  not  been  unfelt  by 
her ;  while  contact  with  the  Continent  and  its  extremer 
spirits  imported  alien  elements  which  proved  the  source 
of  religious  division  within  her  own  borders. 

From  this  lamentable  breach  of  visible  organic  unity 
in  the  most  important  and  influential  provinces  of  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Christ  on  earth — lamentable  from  that 
very  stern  necessity  which  more  than  sufficiently  justi- 
fied it  at  the  time,  and  has  additionally  justified  it 
since,  and  justifies  it  still — there  flow,  nevertheless, 
inevitably,  certain  further  admitted  evils,  not  only  to 
that  English-speaking  Christianity  which  is  rapidly 
occupying  the  whole  earth,  but  to  Christianity  at  large 
and  everywhere,  in  whatever  form.  Among  these  evils 
are  certainly  to  be  reckoned,  a  grave  weakening  of  the 
Church's  witness  in  the  world  in  general  to  Christ  and 
to  His  Kevealed  Truth,  whether  within  the  local  limits 
of  professed  Christendom  itself,  or  in  missionary  efforts 
beyond  its  pale ;  and,  further,  an  injurious  relaxation, 
within  the  Church's  own  borders,  of  wholesome  moral 
discipline  over  her  own  professing  members  ;  and,  what 
is  very  largely  consequent  on  this,  an  impaired  power 


VIII.]  Call  to  increased  devotion.  385 

of  resistance  to  growing  moral  evils  in  society  at  large, 
such,  for  example,  as  our  own  generation  has  seen, 
both  at  home  and  in  Continental  Europe,  in  America, 
and  in  the  Colonies,  in  regard  to  the  laws  affecting 
marriage.  Nor  can  we  fail  to  note  and  to  grieve 
over  the  wasteful  diversion  in  party-strife  of  the  time 
and  money,  the  energy  and  interest,  which  ought  to 
be  exclusively  devoted  to  the  common  objects  of  the 
great  Christian  Society ;  or  the  more  than  danger  of 
the  substitution  of  party  loyalty  and  zeal  in  the  place 
of  the  supreme  love  of  Christ  and  of  His  cause;  of  a 
mischievous  onesidedness  in  doctrinal  belief,  and  a  feeble 
and  imperfect  grasp  of  Christian  truth,  arising  from 
strong  prejudice  against  certain  portions  or  aspects  of 
it ;  with  a  consequent  distortion  and  exaggeration  of 
other  portions ;  and,  generally,  it  is  much  to  be  feared, 
a  lowered  standard  of  Christian  Ufe  and  holiness  and 
devotion. 

192.  Whether  before  the  end  the  Church  at  large 
shall  see  any  lessening  of  or  recovery  from  these  evils, 
God  knoweth.  The  urgent  call  upon  all  who  feel  them 
to  greater  devotion  and  unworldliness  in  personal  hfe, 
to  a  more  loving  spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood,  to  an 
increased  earnestness  in  the  study  of  God's  Holy  Word, 
and,  above  all,  to  a  stronger  faith  in  the  power  and 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  increasing  prayer  for 
its  more  abundant  outpouring  on  all  who  name  the 
Name  of  Christ — all  this  is  abundantly  self-evident. 

Our  own  Church,  in  our  own  generation,  has  seen 
much  to  revive  our  hopes,  and  to  make  us  thankfully 
feel  that  God  is  still  with  her.     But  it  is  not  possible 

c  c 


386     The  predicted'  apostasy^  and  Anti-Christ,  [lect. 

to  overlook  the  clear  intimations  in  Holy  Scripture  of 
a  dark  time  in  the  future  before  the  personal  visible 
return  of  the  Mediator.  There  shall  come  a  falling 
away  first,  an  ajpostasy  from  the  faith,  among  Christian 
nations.  This,  we  can  hardly  doubt,  will  coincide  with 
the  close  of  the  present  millennial  period,  which  will 
be  marked  by  the  loosing  of  Satan  out  of  his  prison 
{Rev.  XX.  7),  the  temporary  recovery  of  his  ascendancy 
over  tlie  nations  {ra  eOpij,  the  Gentiles,  i.  e.  the  un- 
christianized,  or  de-christianized,  races),  and  the  con- 
sequent revival  of  Paganism,  for  a  final  strenuous 
efibrt  against  Christianity  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Laivless  One  (2  Thess.  ii.  8) ;  who,  as  the  almost  in- 
carnation of  the  Evil  One,  shall  have  been  permitted, 
for  the  moment,  to  gather  into  his  one  hand  all  the 
hingdoms  of  the  tvorld  and  the  glory,  and  the  power,  of 
them,  and  to  use  his  anti-Christian  universal  dominion 
in  the  endeavour  to  suppress  all  worship  but  that  of 
himself,  a  worship  in  effect  equivalent  to  the  worship 
of  his  master,  the  great  rival  of  the  Christ,  the  Evil 
One  himself.  This  lawless  one,  the  devil's  agent,  is 
to  be  identified  with  the  Antichrist,  of  whose  certain 
coming,  in  the  last  days  of  this  the  last  time,  we  read 
in  the  Epistles  of  Saint  John,  the  latest  utterances  of 
New  Testament  inspiration.     {Aiy^endix,  Note  15.) 

The  history  of  the  world  in  its  purely  secular  aspects, 
and  consequent  hostile  relation  to  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
has  had  its  types  of  this  dread  personage,  even  as  the 
history  of  God's  people  on  earth  had  its  types  of  the 
Christ  before  the  Incarnation.  We  may  trace  them  in 
the  history  of  a  Nimrod,  a  Pharaoh,  a  Nebuchadnezzar, 


VIII.]  Possible  developmeyit  of  -^^-j 

an  Antiochus,  a  Nero ;  while,  within  the  period  of 
Christian  history,  there  are  not  wanting,  (in  some  fea- 
tures, for  example,  of  the  great  French  Revolution, 
and  of  its  outgrowth,  democratic  imperialism,)  sugges- 
tions of  what  might  happen  on  a  greater,  or  even  a 
world-wide  scale,  if  only  the  simultaneous  and  con- 
nected rejection  and  overthrow  at  once  of  Christian 
faith  and  of  that  civil  subordination  and  established 
government,  which  letteth  hitherto,  and  ivill  let  until  it 
he  taken  out  of  the  tvay  (2  Tliess.  ii.  7),  should  give  to 
some  master-mind,  who  was  willing  to  submit  to  the 
Evil  One's  condition.  If  thou  loilt  fall  doivn  and  wo7'ship 
me,  the  opportunity  to  wield,  possibly  under  the  pre- 
text, and  in  the  name,  of  order  and  of  humanity,  those 
monstrous  forces  of  violence  and  destruction,  which 
some  strange  fatality  seems,  in  our  day,  to  impel 
civilized  nations  to  heap  together,  in  their  outrageous 
armaments  by  sea  and  land. 

For  indeed  a  world-wide  unity,  in  the  most  literal 
sense — for  good  or  evil — is  no  longer  an  impossible 
dream.  The  development  of  communication  has  made 
the  world  of  man  all  but  a  self-conscious  whole.  A 
deed  of  horror  enacted  in  sufficiently  high  place  sends, 
as  the  phrase  is,  a  *  thrill  of  horror  through  the 
whole  civilized  world,'  and  that  instantly ;  and  the 
universal  world's  opinion  of  it  is  expressed  ere  the 
material  earth  has  completed  another  revolution  on  its 
axis.  Clearly,  the  completest  concentration  of  force 
into  one  world-power  wielded  by  one  hand,  for  what- 
ever purpose,  is  already  within  sight.  Neither  are 
the  vast  and  compHcated  financial  operations  of  modern 

c  c  2 


388  a  world-ivide  godless  power.  [lect. 

times,  and  the  consequent  extensive  power  of  con- 
trolling, or  paralyzing,  the  energies  of  whole  nations, 
without  their  manifest  importance  in  this  point  of 
view.  Blows  may  be  struck  by  unscrupulous  wicked- 
ness and  over-reaching  ambition  which  would  be  felt 
instantly  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  civilization. 
Meantime  the  pressure  of  increasing  populations,  out- 
growing the  resources  of  nations,  must  necessarily  tell 
on  the  stability  of  existing  institutions  and  order, 
which  are  nothing  to  those  who  starve,  or  at  best 
live  but  miserably,  in  spite  of  them.  It  is  obvious 
enough  that  a  very  conceivable  combination  of  in- 
fluences like  these  may  give  at  once  the  opportunity 
and  the  momentum  to  changes  of  the  widest  and  the 
most  destructive  sweep.     {Aj^jpendix,  Note  16.) 

That  such  an  opportunity,  when  it  has  fully  come, 
will  be  snatched  at  by  the  Evil  One  in  his  hatred  of 
Christ  and  His  Kingdom,  and  with  a  momentary  ap- 
parent success,  the  observant  student  of  Holy  Scripture 
and  of  human  history  cannot  really  doubt.  The  thought, 
were  awful  to  him  indeed,  but  for  his  sure  faith  that, 
now  as  ever. 

The  Lord  sits  throned  above  the  waterjlood, 
The  Lord  remaineth  a  King  for  ever ; 

and  that  the  moment  of  the  deepest  darkness  shall  be 
the  herald  of  the  dawn  of  the  great  future  Day  of  the 
Lord,  which  will  be  marked  by  the  visible  personal 
return  of  the  Mediator,  with  His  risen  and  glorified 
saints,  to  be  followed  by  the  general  Resurrection  of 
the  dead,  and  the  general  Judgment. 


vm.]  The  Resurrection  of  the  Saints;  389 

Through  some  such  awful  crisis  and  catastrophe,  the 
scale  and  grandeur  whereof  no  human  imagination,  in 
its  highest  flight,  can  reach  to  picture,  must  the  final 
and  complete  regeneration  of  man  and  of  his  world, 
social  and  material,  through  the  now  fully  developed 
work  of  the  One  Mediator,  be  attained,  in  the  new 
heavens  and  the  neio  earth,  tvherein  chvelleth  righteous- 
ness (2  Pet.  iii.  7-14). 

193.  And  yet,  though  it  was  once  indeed  true  that 
Eye  had  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  had  entered 
into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath  jpre- 
jpared  for  them  that  love  Him  [Isaiah  Ixiv.  4) ;  St.  Paul 
was  able  to  add  (1  Cor.  ii.  9),  But  God  hath  revealed 
them  to  us  hy  His  Sjnrit ;  and  at  least  some  faint  outline, 
some  few  general  features,  and  those  in  a  certain  order 
and  sequence,  of  the  great  Restoration  of  all  things 
[Acts  iii.  21)  are  revealed  to  Christian  faith  and  hope, 
in  the  eschatological  portions  of  the  New  Testament. 

Among  such  features  are  the  following  : — 

A  clear  distinction  between  the  resurrection  of  tlie 
saints,  i.e.  of  those  who  are  of  the  Body  Mystical  of 
Christ — which  our  Lord  Himself,  four  times  in  His 
great  eucharistic  discourse  (St.  John  vi.),  assures  us  He 
will  effect  on  the  last  day — and  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  in  general.  St.  Paul  tells  us  that  TJie  dead  in 
Christ  shall  rise  first,  as  a  simultaneous  accompaniment 
of  the  descent  of  the  Lord  Himself  from  heaven  ivith  a 
shout,  loith  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trumpet 
of  God  (i  Thess.  iv.  16).  This  precedency  is  also  inti- 
mated in  the  same  Apostle's  language  to  the  Co- 
rinthians (i.  XV.  22),  As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in 


390      their  session  with  Christ  in  His  Throne;    [lect. 

Christ  shall  all  he  made  alive.  But  every  man  in  his 
own  order  ;  Christ  the  first-fruits ;  afterivards  they  that 
are  Christ's  at  His  coming.  Then  cometh  the  end.  At 
the  same  time  the  living  saints,  who  do  not  sZeep,  but 
are  alive  and  remain^  shall  be  caught  iij),  together  ivith 
the  glorified  dead,  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the 
air ;  and  so,  having  been  changed  in  a  moment,  in  the 
timikling  of  an  eye,  into  incorruption  and  immortality, 
to  he  ever  ivith  the  Lord ;  and  so  to  accompany  Him  in 
His  progress  to  the  earth,  whither  He  shall  come,  in 
visible  majesty  as  the  Son  of  man  {St.  Matt.  xxv.  31), 
in  His  glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  ivith  Him,  and 
shall  sit  uj)on  the  throne  of  His  glory;  and  hefore  Him 
shall  he  gathered  all  the  nations  {-Travra  ra  eOvtj,  all  the 
Gentiles),  i.  e.  those  who  are  not  part  of  His  Mystical 
Body. 

To  His  glorified  saints,  with  all  of  whom  He  shall 
thus  co77ie  (i  Thess.  iii.  13),  and  who,  collectively,  are 
His  Body,  Christ  will  then  fulfil  His  promises,  To  him 
that  overcometh  tvill  I  grant  to  sit  ivith  Me  in  My 
throne,  even  as  I  also  overcame  and  am  set  down  with 
My  Father  in  His  throne  (Bev.  iii.  21);  and.  To  him 
will  I  give  authority  over  the  nations;  and  he  shall 
rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron,  as  the  vessels  of  the  potter 
are  hrohen  to  shivers  [Psalm  ii.  8) ;  as  I  also  have  re- 
ceived of  My  Father  {Bev.  ii.  26).  Thus  will  the  great 
words  of  Saint  Paul's  appeal  to  the  Corinthians  (i.  vi.  2) 
be  actually  realized.  Do  ye  not  know  that  the  saints 
shall  judge  the  world  1  .  .  .  knoiv  ye  not  that  ive  shall 
judge  angels  f 

Then  shall  the  chosen  Twelve — in  yet  a  fuller  sense 


VIII.]  The  ' passing-away'  of  this  earth  and  heaven.   391 

and  in  fuller  manifestation  than  they  do  even  now, 
within  the  veil,  in  the  incipient  and  imperfect  regenera- 
tion of  this  present  millennial  period — Sit  u^on  tivelve 
thrones,  judging  the  tivelve  tribes  of  Israel  {St.  Matt. 
xix.  30). 

194.  Concurrently  with  this  Manifestation  (e-TrKpaveia, 
Titus  ii.  13)  of  the  glory  of  our  great  God  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the  blessed  hoj^e  of  Christians, 
will  be  the  passing  away  (Rev.  xxi.  i)  of  this  present 
heaven  and  earth,  the  scene  of  man's  sin  and  misery 
and  of  the  triumphs  of  evil.  They  shall  flee  from  His 
face,  and  no  flace  be  found  for  them  (xv.  ii).  This  He 
Himself  promised  (St.  Matt.  xxiv.  35  ;  St.  Mark  xiii. 
31  ;  St.  Luke  xxi.  33,  TrapeXeva-ovrai,  in  all  three  pas- 
sages). This,  in  his  vision,  the  seer  of  Patmos  saw 
fulfilled  {-Trap^XOe,  Rev.  xxi.).  Another  of  the  listeners 
to  the  Olivet  discourse,  St.  Peter,  witnesses  (2.  iii.  10) 
to  the  same  expectation  in  connection  with  the  corning 
(t^v  -Kapova-lav)  of  the  Day  of  God.  It  ivill  come,  he 
says  (with  evident  reference  to  St.  Matt.  xxiv.  43,  and 
St.  Luke  xii.  39),  «s  a  thief  in  the  night ;  in  the  ivhich 
the  heavens  shall  ^ass  away  (again  the  Lord's  own 
word,  -TrapeXeva-ovrai)  ivith  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements 
shall  be  dissolved  with  fervent  heat,  and  the  earth  and 
the  ivorhs  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  ujj  (or,  dis- 
covered), .  .  .  the  heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved, 
and  the  elements  shall  melt  ivith  fervent  heat ;  for,  as  he 
expressly  reveals  (2.  iii.  5),  As  the  heavens  that  ivere 
from  of  old,  and  the  earth  compacted  out  of  icater  and 
amidst  (or,  through)  ivater,  by  the  word  of  God ;  by 
which  means  the  loorld  that  then  was,  being  oversowed 


392  The  new  heaven  and  earth,  [lect. 

witli  ivater^  perished ;  so  the  heavens  that  now  are,  and 
the  earth,  hy  the  same  word,  have  been  stored  ujp  for 
fire  (or,  stored  with  fire),  heing  reserved  against  the  day 
of  judgment  and  destruction  of  ungodly  men. 

The  Apostle's  reference  to  the  earUer  destruction  of 
the  earth  by  the  agency  of  water,  and  whole  tenour 
of  this  as  well  as  of  the  parallel  passages,  seem  to 
point  to  a  great  physical  catastrophe,  such  as  even 
the  latest  conjectural  speculations  of  physical  science 
leave  ample  room  for,  whereby  the  material  dwelling- 
place  of  man — throughout,  by  some  mysterious  sym- 
pathy, bound  up  with  man's  destiny — shall  be  regene- 
rated into  a  condition  adapted  to  his  now  consummated 
life  in  what  will  be  a  celestial  hody,  a  s'piritual  hody, 
wherein  he  shall  hear  the  image  of  the  heavenly  Man 
(i  Cor.  XV.  40,  44,  49)  ;  the  present  hody  of  his  humilia- 
tion being  transformed  so  as  to  have  become  conformed 
according  to  the  body  of  Christ's  glory,  according  to  the 
working  of  His  jpoiver  even  to  subject  all  things  unto 
Himself  {Philipp.  iv.  21) — but  still  a  hody.  As  man 
is,  so  his  destined  home  and  dwelling-place  must  be. 
It  fell  with  him,  cursed  for  his  sake  {Gen.  iii.  17).  It 
shall  be  redeemed  with  him,  so  that  there  shall  be  no 
m,ore  curse,  {Rev.  xxii.  3).  It  is  but  a  false  and  mis- 
taken '  spirituality '  that  ignores  or  denies  this  clear 
Scripture  revelation,  so  plainly  consonant  to  reason  and 
to  natural  expectation ;  and  speaks  vaguely  of  some 
remote  unreal  '  heaven,'  utterly  discontinuous  with  all 
the  previous  history  of  the  race  and  every  individual 
of  it.  It  is  a  dishonour  to  the  Creator's  wondrous 
work  in  His  material  universe  of  Nature  to  suppose 


VIII.]         the  dwelling-place  of  redeemed  man.  393 

that  even  this  minute  and  humble  portion  of  it — 
which  yet  has  been  the  scene  of  the  Incarnation  of 
the  Son  of  God — must  be  thrown  aside  and  perish  for 
ever  as  a  hopeless  failure,  wrecked,  overmastered, 
violated,  dishonoured,  for  all  its  beauty  and  its  wonder, 
by  the  too  successful  malice  of  the  enemy  of  God.  It 
cannot  be.  Not  in  vain  did  Christ  teach  us  to  pray  to 
our  Father,  Tliy  Kingdom  come ;  Tliy  ivill  he  done,  in 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  His  will  shall  be  done,  not 
only  by  man,  as  by  the  holy  angels,  whose  equal  he 
then  shall  be  {la-dyyeXoi,  St.  Luhe  xx.  36),  but  also  in 
earth,  as  in  heaven.  For  indeed  the  contrast,  the  op- 
position, shall  be  done  away,  in  visible  realized  fact, 
as  it  is  already,  spiritually,  and  to  faith  ;  and  '  earth ' 
shall  become  part  of  'heaven.'  For  'heaven'  is  no 
confined  locality,  but  is  wherever  God,  Who  is  every- 
where, can  manifest  Himself  fully  to  creatures  fully 
capable  of  Him.  And  so  the  glory  ivhich  shall  he  re- 
vealed in  us  shall  be  accompanied  by  a  glorious  re- 
generation of  our  ancient  home.  The  loveliness  of 
nature,  which,  even  in  its  temporary  obscuration  and 
almost  ruin,  we  have  loved,  and  for  which,  as  the 
wreck  of  Paradise,  we  have  blessed  our  and  its  Creator 
— though  we  have  discerned,  and  that  but  in  transient 
glimpses,  the  fringe  of  His  garment,  the  outer  skirts 
of  His  magnificent  beauty  and  His  almighty  power — 
shall  be  restored  and  revealed,  and  that  beyond  that 
primal  beauty,  for  the  sight  whereof,  even  in  its  first 
beginnings, 

The  morning  stars  sang  together, 

And  all  the  sons  of  God  shoiUed  for  joy.     [Job  xxxvlii.  7-) 


394  "^^^^  descent  of  the  New  Jertisalem,       [lect. 

Such  was  the  faith  of  the  toiling  and  despised  Apostle, 
whose  own  hodily  presence  tvas  tveak,  and  Ms  sjpeech 
contem/ptible ;  such  his  hope,  as  he  laboured  for  the 
uplifting  of  the  outcast  and  the  vile  in  the  disgusting 
cities  of  tlie  pagan  East,  or,  for  two  whole  years,  a  weary 
prisoner  in  the  imperial  city.  To  him  it  was  revealed 
that  The  creation  was  subjected  to  vanity,  not  of  its  own 
tvill,  hut  hy  reason  of  Him  Who  subjected  it  in  ho]^e ; 
because  the  creation  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of 
the  children  of  God  {Romans  viii.  19). 

195.  In  full,  and,  indeed,  in  exclusive  agreement 
with  the  revelation  that  the  scene  of  man's  consum- 
mated life  in  the  Resurrection  will  be  the  regenerated 

o 

earth,  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  ivherein  dwelleth 
righteousness;  is  the  statement  that  the  holy  city,  the 
great  city,  the  neio  Jerusalem,  the  holy  Jerusalem,  was 
seen  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  descending 
out  of  heaven  from  God,  having  the  glory  of  God  ;  filled, 
that  is,  with  the  Shekinah-brightness  of  His  mani- 
fested presence.  This  city  is  the  redeemed  and  glori- 
fied Church,  now  in  the  Unseen,  and  not  yet  fully 
glorified,  partaking  as  yet  only  of  the  first  resurrection 
(§  177);  but  which,  though  now  Jerusalem  which  is 
above,  is  yet  the  mother  of  us  all,  the  city  whereof  we, 
whose  citizenship  is  already  in  heaven  (PhilijJj)-  iii.  20), 
are  alreixdj  felloio  citizens  ivith  the  saints  {Eph.  ii.  19), 
the  city  ichich  hath  the  foundations,  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God  [Heb.  xi.  10),  the  city  of  the  living  God, 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem,,  to  which,  in  inner  spiritual 
membership,  already  we  are  come  (xii.   22),  the  city 


VIII.]   wherein  God  hicarnate  will  dwell  on  earth,    395 

which,  ahke  in  the  thought  of  St.  Peter  (i.  ii.  4)  and 
of  St.  John  {Jiev.  xxi.  22),  and  of  St.  Paul  {E^lu  ii.  20), 
was  being  slowly  upbuilded  of  living  stories,  until  it 
should  groiv  into  an  lioly  temple  in  the  Lord  (i.  e.  Christ) 
in  Wliom  Christians  are  now  being  huilded  together,  on 
Him  the  chief  corner  stone,  elect,  precious,  for  an  habita- 
tion of  God  through  the  Spirit. 

Therein,  in  its  full  consummation,  the  tabernacle 
{(TKrivri)  of  God  is  ivith  men,  in  the  visible  Presence  of  the 
glorified  humanity  of  the  Incarnate  Son  ;  and  He  ivill 
tabernacle  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  peo'ples,  and 
Himself  shall  be  God  with  them  (compare  Emmanuel), 
their  God.  And  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from 
their  eyes ;  and  death  shall  be  no  more ;  neither  shall 
there  be  mourning,  nor  crying,  nor  painful  toil  (ttoVo?, 
labour  and  sorroio,  Psalm  xc  10)  any  more;  for  the 
first  things  are  passed  quite  aivay. 

Such  is  the  Christian's  hope ;  not  vague,  shadowy, 
unreal  and  elusive ;  but,  in  its  great  essential  outlines, 
clear,  definite,  and  real;  a  hope  the  definiteness  and 
certainty  of  which,  as  to  be  realized,  beyond  all  hope, 
at  the  longed-for  coming  of  the  Lord,  may  prove  the 
stay  and  anchor  of  believing  souls,  in  the  sore  stress 
of  the  darker  days  towards  the  end,  when  the  founda- 
tions are  cast  down  {Ps.  xi.),  and  there  is  not  one  godly 
man  left,  and  the  faithfid  are  minished  from  among  the 
children  of  men  (xii.  i)  ;  when  the  man  of  the  earth  is 
exalted  against  them,  and  the  patient  abiding  of  the  meek 
seems  like  to  perish  for  ever  (ix.  18). 

Then  will  the  cry  go  up,  on  earth  and  ivithin  the  veil, 
as  once  in  earlier  days  it  went  up,  and  not  unheeded, 


39^  ConstimmatedmtionofChristwilk His Chiirck,  [lect. 

from  the  victims  of  Neronian  and  Jewish  persecution, 
Sow  long,  0  Lord,  holy  and  true?  (Rev.  vi.  lo).  And 
the  answer  shall  come,  in  the  sudden  Manifestation  of 
Him  ]V]io  sitteth  u^on  the  throne,  and  Who,  His  work 
of  judgment  finished,  shall  proclaim,  Behold,  I  make  all 
things  new  (xxi.  5). 

He  bade  His  beloved  Apostle  record  these  wondrous 
disclosures,  that  they  might  remain  for  the  perpetual 
comfort  of  His  people ;  He  said  unto  me,  Write ;  for 
these  ivords  are  faithful  and  true,  a  revelation  from 
Him  Who  is  the  faithful  and  true  witness,  the  beginning 
of  the  new,  as  of  the  old  creation  of  God  [Rev.  iii.  14). 

196.  Then,  sin  and  evil  subdued  and  banished,  the 
last  enemy  destroyed,  in  all  his  forms,  it  can  be  said 
of  the  great  work  of  the  One  Mediator,  It  is  done 
{Veyove)  ]  All  has  come  to  joass  (xxi.  6).  And  then,  since 
perfect  union  between  God  and  man  is  the  one  in- 
clusive purpose,  and  result,  of  that  work — a  result 
realized  through  the  Incarnation — the  vision  is  pre- 
sented of  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's  ivife  {ver.  9)  lohom  He 
loved,  for  whom  He  gave  Himself,  that  He  anight  pre- 
sent her  to  Himself  a  glorious  Church,  not  having  s'pot 
or  ivrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  hut  that  she  should  be  holy 
and  ivitliout  blemish  {Lph.  v.  25). 

The  description  that  follows,  Revelations  xxi.  10-23, 
shows  that  by  the  Bride,  who  is  identified  mth  the 
heavenly  city,  the  holy  Jerusalem,  is  intended  the 
glorified  Church  in  its  corporate  totality  as  the  mysti- 
cal Body  of  the  Christ,  one  with  Him,  through  sacra- 
mental union,  bone  of  His  bones,  and  flesh  of  His  flesh 
{Genesis  ii.  23  ;  E'ph.  v.  29-32). 


VIII.]  His  Bride,  and  Mystical  Body,  397 

Does  this  blessed  company  include  the  faithfid  of 
the  earlier  covenants  ?  It  would  certainly  seem  so. 
There  was  a  time  when  Christ  could  say  that  Among 
them  that  were  horn  of  women  there  had  not  risen  a 
greater  than  John  the  Ba])tist,  hut  yet  that  the  least  in 
the  Kingdom  of  heaven  ivas  greater  than  he  {St.  Matt, 
x'l.  Ti).  But  that  was  before  the  work  of  Christ  was 
finished,  and  before  the  Kingdom  of  heaven  was 
'  opened  to  all  believers.'  We  must  remember  that 
there  was  no  breach  of  spiritual  continuity  between 
the  Jewish  Church  and  the  Christian.  In  the  persons 
of  the  remnant  according  to  the  election  of  grace  (Bom. 
xi.  5),  of  whom  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the  Apostles 
may  be  regarded  as  typical  examples,  the  Jewish 
Church  bloomed,  after  the  Resurrection  and  Pentecost, 
into  the  Christian  Church,  the  Kingdom  of  heaven,  the 
good  olive  tree  of  Romans  xi.,  into  which  the  Gentiles, 
cut  out  of  the  olive  tree  which  is  tvild  hy  nature,  were 
ingrafted ;  and  from  which  the  unbelieving  Jews, 
natural  hranches  though  they  were,  were  hrohen  off. 
But  what  of  those  elder  faithful  who  had  passed  into 
the  Unseen  before  Christ  came  in  the  flesh  %  or  who 
had,  Hke  old  Simeon  and  Anna,  and  the  Baptist,  seen 
Him  and  beheved  on  Him,  but  had  died  before  the 
Holy  Ghost  was  given,  and  so  before  sacramental  union 
with  Him  was  possible  1  Surely  it  is  of  these,  the 
faithful  children  oi  faithful  Ahraham,  the  true  seed  of 
him  who  rejoiced  to  see  Christ's  day  {St.  John  viii.  56), 
who  in  all  his  pilgrimage  looked  for  the  city  which  hath 
the  foundations,  ivhose  huilder  and  maker  is  God,  that 
that   Epistle   speaks    in  which   we    should    naturally 


398  inclnding  the  saints  of  the  older  [lect. 

expect  allusions  to  their  spiritual  state.  These  all 
died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the  ^promises,  hut 
having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded  of  them 
and  embraced  them  [Heb.  xi.  13).  They  had  to  wait; 
but  in  sure  hope.  For  them,  for  these  longing  seekers 
after  a  better  country,  even  an  heavenly,  God,  Wlio  is 
not  ashamed  to  be  called  their  God,  had  prej^ared  a  city 
(ver.  16).  In  darker  times,  God's  nameless  martyrs  of 
the  elder  faith,  those  of  whom  the  ivorld  ivas  not  ivorthy, 
were  tortured,  not  accepting  deliverance,  that  they  might 
obtain  a  better  resurrection  (ver.  35).  Yet  they  received 
not  the  promise,  God  having  provided  some  better  thing 
concerning  us,  that  apart  from  us  they  should  not  be 
made  perfect  {ver.  40).  So  things  stood  for  them  when 
they  died ;  and  afterwards  also,  until  Christ's  finished 
work  brought  in  eternal  redemption  for  them  and  for 
us.  '  When  He  had  overcome  the  sting  of  death,  He 
opened  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  all  believers  \'  What 
mysterious  change  passed  over  their  spiritual  condition, 
or  how  effected,  on  the  visit  of  the  human  spirit  of  Jesus 
to  the  unseen  state,  we  are  not  told.  But  we  doubt  not 
that  lohat  many  prophets,  and  kings,  and  righteous  men 
had  long  desired  to  see,  and  had  not  seen  them,  and  to 
hear,  and  had  not  heard  them  {St.  Matt.  xiii.  17;  St. 
Luke  X.  24),  they  saw  at  last,  in  the  presence  of  the 
promised  Seed  of  the  ivoman,  and  heard  with  rapture 
from  His  own  lips.  Christ  Himself  has  told  us  {St. 
Matt.  viii.  1 1 )  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  shoidd 
sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  ivith  them  many 

^  '  Tu  devicto  mortis  aculeo  :  aperuisti  creclentibus  regna  coelorum.' 
The  Te  Deum. 


VIII,]  covenants,  now  *  made  perfect,'  399 

Gentiles  from  the  east  and  from  the  west,  from  the 
north  and  fi^om  the  south ;  and  that  at  a  time  when  the 
children  of  the  Kingdom,  they  whose  very  heritage  it 
was,  ivere  cast  out  into  the  outer  darkness.  (Compare 
also  St.  Luke  xiii.  28,  to  the  same  effect.)  Accord- 
ingly St.  Paul's  language  to  the  Ephesians  (ii.  14,  &c.) 
of  Christ  our  Peace,  Who  hath  made  both  Jew  and 
Gentile  one,  and  hath  broken  doivn  the  middle  ivall  of 
partition  between  us ;  and  of  the  result  of  His  work  in 
making  in  Himself  of  the  twain  one  new  man,  and  in 
reconciling  both  unto  God  in  one  body,  viz.  that  one 
household,  city,  temple  of  God  which  is  built  iipon  the 
foundation,  not  of  the  Apostles  only,  but  of  the  Prophets 
also,  may  better  be  understood  as  including  the  faith- 
ful Israel  of  all  generations,  than  as  restricted  to  the 
believing  remnant  at  Pentecost  and  afterwards.  So 
it  is  that  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews,  who,  looking  at 
their  past  condition,  had  described  it  as  one  of  longing 
expectancy,  speaking  afterwards  of  the  contrasted  ^ 
present,  includes  now  in  that  city  of  the  living  God,  the 

^  Ileb.  xi.  40.  Iva  fjLr]  ;^;<upiff  ry/nwv  reXeicodcoai,  compared  with  xii.  23, 
TTVfVfiaa-i  SiKaicov  TfreXfico/ieVwi',  Observe  also  the  remarkable  lanj^uage 
of  St.  Paul  to  the  Philippians  (iii.  8,  &c.),  of  his  longing  to  ivin  Christ, 
and  to  he  found  in  Him,  if  by  any  means  (he  says)  I  might  attain  to 
tlie  rising  up  out  from  among  t/ie  dead  [f^avda-raa-iu  eK  tS>v  vfKpa>v,  com- 
pare aS'^.  Licke,  XX.  35),  Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either 
were  alreadi/  2)erfected  (171^17  TerfXeloifiai) ;  but  I  follow  after  .  .  .  1 2)ress 
toivard  the  mark  for  the  jrrize  of  the  calling  above  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus.  He  looks  and  longs  for  that  nearer  and  everlastingly  assured 
relation  to  Cluiyt  which  is  tlic  crown  of  life  to  the  faithful  in  the 
Unseen  ;  and  so  speaks,  naturally,  in  this  same  Epistle  of  the  gain  of 
death,  and  so  of  his  desire  to  depart,  and  to  be  tuith  Christ,  which  is 
far  better  (i.  21). 


400  and  reigning  with  Christ.  [lect. 

heavenly  Jerusalem,  to  which  the  Christian  Hebrews 
were  already  come  {Heb.  xii.  22)  the  spirits  of  just  men 
(i.e.  the  departed  faithful  of  the  older  covenants)  now 
made  j^erfect.  Consistently  with  this  inclusion  of  the 
elder  faithful  in  the  mystical  body  of  the  Christ,  Saint 
John  sees,  through  the  oji)ened  door  in  heaven  {Rev. 
IV.  i),  the  four  and  twenty  thrones  round  about  the 
throne  of  the  Kedeemer,  and  thereon  four  and  twenty 
elders  sitting,  clothed  in  white  raiment,  and  having  on 
their  heads  croions  of  gold.  These  we  may  safely 
understand  to  be  the  representatives  of  the  two 
covenants,  now  at  length  united.  Is  it  in  any  con- 
nection with  some  such  access  of  blessedness  that  we 
have,  in  the  specially  Hebrew  Gospel  (St.  Matt,  xxvii. 
52),  the  mysterious  statement  that,  in  some  inner  rela- 
tion with  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  many 
hodies  of  the  saints  which  slept  arose,  and  came  out  of 
the  graves,  after  His  Resurrection,  and  went  into  the 
holy  city,  and  appeared  unto  manyf  We  cannot  be- 
lieve that  this  was  only  a  Lazarus  resurrection,  nor 
that  they  who  had  thus  in  a  manner  shared  in  the 
Lord's  triumph  over  death  and  corruption,  were  re- 
mitted to  the  darkness  of  the  grave  \ 

^  St.  Matthew  records  this  where  he  does,  evidently  in  connection 
with  the  opening  of  the  graves  which  accompanied,  perhaps  by  way  of 
consequence,  the  earthquake  which  marked  the  moment  of  Christ's 
Death  ;  but  the  resurrection  of  the  old  Saints,  their  coming  out  of  the 
graves  and  being  seen  in  Jerusalem,  are  clearly  to  be  understood  as 
following  Christ's  Resurrection.  In  connection  with  so  suggestive  an 
incident  one  naturally  thinks  of  the  cases  of  Moses  and  Elijah,  who 
appeared  in  glory  at  the  Transfiguration.  Their  cases  were  very  special. 
Elijali  had  not  died  at  all.     Moses  died  indeed,  but  scarcely  with  the 


VIII.]     The  '  saved '  from  among  ike  Gentiles.         40 1 

197.  We  conclude,  then,  that  ilie  heavenly  Jerusalem^ 
which  is  the  mystical  body  and  the  Bride  of  Christ, 
includes  the  elder  saints,  at  least  from  Abraham  on- 
wards, who,  living  before  Christ  came,  died  in  faith, 
but  who,  after  and  through  His  finished  work,  were 
made  j^erfect.  We  must  next  inquire  whom,  among 
the  finally  saved,  it  does  not  include. 

The  prior  resurrection  of  the  saints,  whom  Christ 
brings  loitli  Him,  and  who  are  assessors  with  Him  in 
the  judgment  of  the  world  ;  the  pointed  use,  in  the 
Saviour's  description  of  that  judgment,  of  the  clearly 
defined  phrase  irdura  to.  eOvt],  all  the  Gentiles,  i.  e.  the 
uncovenanted  races  of  mankind  ;  their  trial  by  the 
test  of  the  corporal  works  of  mercy,  done  according  to 
the  instincts  of  common  humanity  and  the  dictates  of 
natural  conscience,  or  left  undone  in  defiance  of  them ; 
the  surprise  expressed,  even  by  those  who  are  accepted, 
at  the  relation  of  their  good  works  to  Him  before 
Whose  bar  they  stand ;  the  evident  ignorance,  alike 
of  those  on  the  right  hand  and  of  those  on  the  left,  of 

common  death  of  all  men  ;  and,  though  he  passed,  as  to  his  hody, 
under  the  hand  of  hi»i  that  hath  the  2)ov:er  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil, 
the  mention  by  St.  Jude  (9)  of  the  contention  of  St.  Michael  the  arch- 
angel with  the  devil  about  the  hodij  of  Moses,  indicates  its  speedy  deli- 
verance from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  and  so  explains  its  glorified 
condition  in  the  days  of  Christ.  One  might  have  expected  that  Enoch, 
also  translated  like  Elijah,  would  have  been  found  with  him  and  Moses 
on  the  Ilohj  Mount.  His  absence  there  is  one  among  the  various  in- 
dications of  a  clear  line  between  the  antediluvian  period  (or  alwv)  and 
the  subsequent  age.  That  would  seem  a  dispensation  by  itself  its 
close  and  end  of  the  world.  Hence,  again,  the  special  mention  [i  St. 
Peter  ill.  19)  of  Christ's  preaching  in  the  unseen  state  to  the  sjurits 
of  those  who  perished  in  the  flood. 

Dd 


402        God  judges  according  to  opportunities.      [lect, 

what  is  a  commonplace  among  Christians — all  point 
with  convergent  force  to  the  conclusion  that  the  judg- 
ment described  is  that  of  humanity  out  of  Christ ;  i,  e. 
first,  of  those  countless  myriads  of  millions  of  the 
human  race  to  whom,  whether  within  or  beyond  the 
local  pale  of  professing  Christendom,  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  never  came  in  this  earthly  life,  and  among 
whom  therefore  will  be  those  (we  know  not  how 
blessedly  many)  of  whom  St.  Paul  speaks  as  Gentiles 
loliicli,  having  no  law,  do  by  nature  the  things  of  the  law, 
and  are  a  law  unto  themselves,  in  that  they  shew  the  ivork 
of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts  {Bomans  ii.  14);  and, 
secondly,  alas,  of  those  fallen  Christians  who,  though 
they  knew  the  way  of  righteousness,  tlu^ough  the  hnow- 
ledge  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  yet  turned 
from  the  holy  commandment  delivered  unto  them,  and 
so,  through  the  love  of  sin,  were  again  entangled  in  the 
'pollutions  of  the  world,  and  overcome  (2  St.  Peter  ii.  20). 

198.  The  Lord  did  not  answer  the  question  of 
curiosity,  Are  there  few  that  he  saved?  but  put  it  aside 
with  a  practical  exhortation  to  His  disciples  to  take 
the  highest  aim.  Yet  He  has  revealed  to  us  ex- 
pressly— what  our  natural  sense  of  right  might  safely 
assure  us  of— that  He  will  judge  all  according  to  their 
ojjportunities ;  That  servant  which  knew  his  Lord^s  will, 
and  ^rejpared  not  himself,  neither  did  according  to  His 
tvill,  shall  he  heaten  with  many  strides.  But  he  that 
knew  not,  and  did  commit  things  2vorthy  of  strides,  shall 
he  heaten  with  few  strides.  For  unto  whomsoever  much 
is  given,  of  him  shall  he  much  required:  and  to  ivhom 
men   have  committed   much,  of  him  they  will  ask  the 


VIII.]  Various  degrees  of  blessedness.  403 

more  [St.  Luke  xii.  47;  compare  Romans  ii.  12).  He 
has  said  that  In  His  Father  s  house — that  house  which 
was  built  by  Him  Wlio  huilt  all  things  {to,  TrdvTa,  the 
universe,  Heh.  iii.  4) ,  that  great  house,  wherein  are  not 
only  vessels  of  gold  and  of  silver,  hut  also  of  wood  and 
of  earth ;  and  some  to  honour,  and  some  to  dishonour 
(2  Tim.  ii.  20),  but  still  within  the  house,  for  use,  and 
not  for  destruction — in  that  house  are  many  mansions. 
He  went  indeed  to  prepare  specially  a  ])lace  for  those 
to  whom  He  spake.  They  were  to  sit  on  thrones.  And 
for  His  faithful  in  general,  His  elect,  for  those  whom  the 
Father  had  given  Him,  those  of  whom  He  said,  The 
glory  which  Thou  gavest  Me  I  have  given  them,  that  they 
may  he  one,  even  as  We  are  One ;  I  in  them,  and  Thou 
in  Me,  that  they  may  he  made  jperfect  in  one  [rerekeiw- 
[xevoi  ek  'ev,  St.  John  xvii.  23);  for  these  also  He  prayed,  / 
will  that  they  also  he  with  Me  where  I  am,  that  they  may 
hehold  My  glory  which  Thou  hast  given  Me ;  with  Him, 
that  is,  in  that  Holy  Jerusalem  which  descendeth  out  of 
Heaven  from  God,  having  the  glory  of  God  {Rev.  xxi. 
10);  which  had  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon, 
to  shine  in  it,  because  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it, 
and  the  Lamh  is  the  light  thereof,  the  Incarnate  Saviour, 
in  Whom  God  visibly  tabernacles  with  men,  from  Whose 
Face  the  Glory  of  God  ^  beams  forth,  in  Whose  light  the 
saints  see  light,  seeing  Him,  Who  is  light,  as  He  is. 

^  Buxtorf,  in  his  Lexic.  Talmvd.,  s.v.  ri3''3B',  and  in  Hist.  Arcae 
Foederis,  cap.  xiv.  shows,  from  their  own  writings,  that  tlie  Shekinah, 
according  to  the  opinions  of  the  ancient  Jews,  was  the  ^Icssiah,  and 
tliat  He  was  called  by  that  name  because  He  tabernacled  in  the  Pillar 
of  the  Cloud  and  of  Fire,  as  afterwards  in  the  Tabernacle  and  the 
Temple. 

D  d  2 


404   Loss  throiig'Ji  persistent  abuse  of  Free-Will.  [lect. 

Short  of  this  supreme  blessedness,  which  is  theirs 
only  who  are  of  His  Body,  there  is  a  blessed  share  in 
life  eternal,  a  place  in  His  heavenly  Kingdom — if  not 
in  its  centre  and  capital,  the  heavenly  city — for  those 
innumerable  happy  subjects  of  the  Divine  King  who — 
doubtless  in  ordered  ranks,  and  in  many  various  but 
progressive  degrees  of  nearness — shall  inhabit  the 
other  portions  of  the  regenerated  earth,  enlarged  as 
its  capacity  shall  then  be  by  the  absence  of  any  sea 
{fiev.  xxi.  1). 

199.  Such  is  the  kind  of  conception  the  Bible  revela- 
tion seems  to  yield  of  the  future  state  when  closely 
studied.  The  want  of  attention  to  it  has  lamentably 
narrowed  men's  thoughts  of  the  merciful  purposes  and 
just  fatherly  government  of  the  Almighty  Father  of 
sjnrits,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh ;  has  created 
wholly  groundless  difficulties  in  the  way  of  faith  and 
religion ;  and  given  rise  to  unworthy  thoughts  of 
God.  It  is  an  awful  thought,  indeed,  and  full  of 
solemn  warning,  that  any  should  finally  perish  through 
their  wilful  resistance,  throughout  their  (doubtless  suf- 
ficient) time  of  probation,  to  the  light  which  God  has 
offered  them.  Yet  it  cannot  be  otherwise ;  seeing 
that  God  respects  to  the  last  that  freedom  of  the  will 
which  is  part — the  highest  part — of  His  own  image  in 
His  creature  man  (see  ^J  48,  51).  Yet,  with  the  awful 
deduction  disclosed  in  such  verses  as  Revelations  xxi.  8 
and  xxii.  1 1  and  15^;  the  picture  given  in  the  Word 

^  But  the  fearful,  and  unbelieving,  and  the  abominable,  and  mur- 
derers^ and  whoremongers,  and  sorcerers,  and  idolaters,  and  all  liars. 


VIII.]     The  Consummated  State  a  complex  Society.     405 

of  God  differs  as  Hglit  from  the  deepest  darkness,  from 
the  miserable  Calvinism  which,  in  days  gone  by,  has 
crushed  and  darkened  the  minds  and  hearts  of  many 
even  good  and  holy  Christians. 

Further,  another  evident  feature  of  the  Consummated 
State  of  man,  represented  as  it  is  under  the  forms  of  a 
city  and  a  kingdom.,  is  its  social  and  political  character, 
its  evidently  furnishing  a  field  for  the  exercise,  and  the 
combined  and  organized  exercise,  in  a  varied  and  com- 
plex administration  and  government,  and  in  the  pursuit 
and  communication  of  knowledge,  of  all  the  highest 
capacities  of  human  nature,  and  free  scope  for  the  de- 
velopment, through  the  endless  ages  of  eternal  life,  of 
its  noblest  instincts  and  powers. 

The  seer  of  the  Apocalypse,  having  described  the 
glories  of  the  heavenly  city,  proceeds  (Rev.  xxi.  24)  to 
speak  of  the  nations  (again  ra  eOvij,  the  Gentiles)  who 
shall  walk  in  the  light  thereof,  and  of  the  kings  of  the 
earth  who  shall  bring  their  glory  and  honour — the  glory 
and  honour  of  the  nations — into  it.  He  speaks,  in  very 
intelligible  symbolism,  of  the  abundant  grace  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  which,  as  a  pure  river  of  water  of  life, 
clear  as  crystal,  he  saw  proceeding  {eKiropevofxevov,  the 
very  word  used,  in  his  Gospel,  of  the  Holy  Ghost)  out 
of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb;  and  of  the 
abundant  supply  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  whose  fimit  is  the 

.shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone  ; 
which  is  the  second  death. 

He  that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still :  and  he  tvhich  is  filthy,  let 
him  be  filthy  still. 

Without  are  dogs,  and  sorcerers,  and  wlioremongers,  and  murderers, 
and  idolaters,  and  whosoever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie. 


4o6     The  Parables  of  the  Talents  and  Pounds,     [lectt. 

sacramental  food  of  the  saints,  while  its  leaves  are  said, 
by  a  distinction  to  be  carefully  noted,  to  be  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations. 

Among  these  saved  nations,  as  even  among  ilie 
saints,  will,  doubtless,  be  included  many  who,  when  the 
mercy  of  God  first  found  them,  were,  in  the  saddest 
spiritual  reality,  the  poor,  and  the  maimed,  and  the  halt, 
and  the  blind,  recovered  from  the  streets  and  lanes  of 
the  city,  and  from  the  hightvays  and  hedges,  and  made 
welcome  at  the  great  supper,  that  God's  house  may  he 
filed  (St.  Luhe  xiv.  i6). 

200.  Over  these  saved  nations,  the  saints,  with  and 
under  Christ  the  King,  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever  ; 
labouring  (we  cannot  doubt),  in  grateful  love  to  Him 
Whose  servants  [SoOXot)  they  are,  Whom  they  ivorshij). 
Whose  Face  they  see,  Whose  Name  is  u^on  their  fore- 
heads, for  the  further  development  of  the  less  favoured 
ones  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  in  progressive  near- 
ness to  Him  ;  for  still,  as  ever,  from  Abraham  onwards, 
election  means,  not  the  proscription,  not  the  exclusion, 
but  the  blessing  and  the  elevation  of  the  non-elect. 

Thus  Mall  the  hints  of  the  two  parables  of  the 
Talents  and  the  Pounds  be  absolutely  realized.  (See 
St.  Matt.  XXV.  15-30;  and  St.  Luke  xix.  11-27.)  The 
position  of  both  these  parables  throws  them  clearly 
into  the  future ;  and  shows  that  they  speak  of  what 
will  happen  on  the  great  coming  day  of  account.  The 
Son  of  man,  preparing  to  travel  into  a  far  country,  calls 
His  own  servants,  and  puts  them  in  trust,  every  man 
according  to  his  several  ability,  and  straightioay  takes 
His  journey.   After  a  long  time,  He  cometli  and  rechoneth 


viTi.]  and  the  Beatitudes,  fulfilled.  407 

witli  tliem ;  and  what  is  His  reward  to  His  good  and 
faithful  servants  ?  It  is  fresh  and  greater  opportunities 
of  helpful  service  and  of  work  for  others.  That  is  the 
joy  of  the  Lord  ;  of  Him  Who  came  not  to  he  ministered 
unto,  hut  to  minister.  And  so  His  blessing  is,  Well 
done,  good  and  faithfid  servant  (^ouXo?) ;  thou  hastheen 
faithftd  over  a  few  things,  I  ivill  set  thee  over  many 
things:  Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord.  In  the 
parable  of  the  Pounds  the  teaching  is  to  the  same 
effect.  Having  gone  into  a  far  country,  and  having 
received  for  Himself  His  kingdom  and  returned.  He 
summons  His  servants  to  the  reckoning.  The  reward 
of  faithful  service  is  similar — Have  thou  authority  over 
ten  cities ;  Be  thou  also  over  five  cities.  A  picture  is 
here  presented  of  a  world-wide  and  populous  kingdom, 
under  the  present  and  visible  rule  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  such  as  should  fully  and  absolutely  realize  in 
glorious  fact  all  the  glowing  pictures  of  future  blessed- 
ness, of  which  the  pages  of  Hevelation,  from  beginning 
to  end,  are  full ;  such  as  should  indeed  be  worthy  of 
God's  purpose  in  the  creation  of  man,  and  of  the  great 
work  of  the  One  Mediator  through  which  it  is  to  be 
brought  about.  Then  shall  the  high  promises  of  Christ's 
beatitudes,  renewing  as  they  do,  and  enhancing,  the 
language  of  such  portions  of  the  older  Scriptures  as 
the  thirtv-seventh  Psalm,  be  indeed  fulfilled  :  The  tneeJc 
shall  inherit  the  earth ;  the  ]^oor  in  spirit  shall  find  that 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  the  ^ure  in  heart  shall 
see  God ;  they  shall  hehold  His  presence  in  righteous- 
ness, they  shall  he  satisfied,  ivhen  they  aivake,  with  His 
likeness,  with  the  revelation  to  their  enraptured  sight 


4oS  God  will  be  '  all  in  all.' 

of  His  image,  His  similitude,  in  the  Face,  the  Person,  of 
Jesus  Christ  (Psal.  xvii.  i6  ;  2  Cor.  iv.  4-6). 

To  this  Fnd,  denoted  by  the  declaration  (Rev.  xxi.  5) 
of  Him  that  sat  upon  the  throne,  It  is  done :  I  am  Alpha 
and  Omega,  the  heginning  and  the  end,  does  Holy 
Scripture  lead  us  up  ;  the  end,  lohen  He  shall  deliver 
up  the  kingdom  to  Him  ivho  is  God  and  Father  (rw  Qew 
Kal  Jlarpi) ;  when  the  Son  of  God  shall  have  ;put  all 
enemies  under  His  feet ;  when  the  last  enemy,  even 
death,  shall  have  been  destroyed;  when  the  Divine 
ideal  of  man  shall  have  been  realized,  in  the  final  sub- 
jection of  all  things  (Psal.  viii.  6)  under  the  feet  of  the 
Divine  Son  of  man,  the  Head  of  regenerate  Humanity, 
Who  shall  then  also  Himself  he  subject  unto  Him  that 
2>ut  all  things  binder  Him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all 
(i  Cor.  XV.  24-28.    Appendix,  Note  xvii.) 


THY    KINGDOM    COME, 

THY    WILL    BE    DONE    IN    EARTH, 

AS    IT   IS    IN    HEAVEN. 


APPEI^DIX. 


APPENDIX. 


Note  I.  §  ^fi. 
The  angels  owe  their  illumination  to  the  Son  of  God. 

Compare  St.  Augustine,  Be  Civitate  Dei,  xi.  9.  '  Profecto  facti 
sunt  (angeli)  participes  lucis  aeternae,  quod  est  ipsa  incom- 
mutabilis  Sapientia  Dei,  per  quam  facta  sunt  omnia,  quem 
dicimus  unigenitum  Dei  Filium ;  ut  ea  luce  illuminati,  qua 
creati,  fierent  lux,  et  vocarentur  dies  participatione  incommuta- 
bilis  lucis  et  diei,  quod  est  Verbum  Dei,  per  quod  et  ipsi  et 
omnia  flicta  sunt.' 

Compare  also  the  passage  from  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  given 
in  the  next  note. 

Note  II.  §  44. 
The  holy  anrjels  are  not  merely  spirits. 

Compare  St.  Basil,  Be  Spiritu  Sancto,  §  24.  Tdv  n^v  ovv 
aWoov  €Ka.(TTri  hway-iiov  kv  irepiypaTTT^  TOTro)  Tvyxaveiv  TreTJtWeurat' 
6  yap  T(3  KopyTjAto)  CTrtcrTas  ayyeXos  ovk  rjp  kv  ravrw  koI  itapa  rw 
(t>iAi7r7r(o,  ovbt:  6  anb  tov  dvcnacTTrjpLov  tw  Zaxapta  OiaAeyo'juei'O?  Kara 
Tov  avTov  Kaipov  koI  kv  ovpaix^  ti]v  oLKeiav  ardaLV  cttAtj^ov.  (Of 
the  other  powers  then,  each  one  is  believed  to  be  in  a  circum- 
scribed space.  For  the  angel  that  visited  Cornelius  was  not  in 
the  same  place  as  with  Philip  [i.  e.  he  was  at  Cffisarea,  and  not 
at  Azotus,  see  Acts  viii.  39] ;  nor  did  he  who  conversed  with 
Zacharias  from  the  altar  occupy  also  at  the  same  time  his 
proper  station  in  Heaven.) 

And  St.  Ambrose  {Be  Abrahavi,  II.  viii.  58,  p.  '^'i^).  '  Nos 
autem  nihil  materialis  compositionis  immune  atcjue  alienum 
putamus,  practer  illam  solam  venerandae  Trinitatis  Substantiam, 


412  The  holy  angels  [app. 

quae  vere  pura  ac  simplex  sincerae  impermixtaeque  naturae 
est.' 

And  St.  Augustine  [De  Trinitate,  III.  i.  4)  speaks  of  the 
angels  as  '  ipsum  suum  corpus  cui  non  subduntur  sed  subditum 
regunt  mutantes  atque  vertentes  in  species  quas  vellent  ac- 
commodatas  atque  aptas  actionibus  suis ; ' — and  [ihid.  5)  *  an 
ipsa  propria  corpora  sua  transforment  in  quod  voluerint,  accom- 
modate ad  id  quod  agunt  ^.' 

And  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  in  a  passage  [Moral.  II.  iii.  p.  39) 
which  follows  a  thought  of  St.  Augustine's  in  Be  Genesi  ad 
litteram  VIII.  xxiv.  45,  '  Quomodo  enim  aut  semper  assistere, 
aut  videre  semper  Faciem  Patris  possunt  [angeli],  si  ad  minis- 
terium  exterius  pro  nostra  salute  mittuntur?  Quod  tamen 
eitius  solvimus,  si  quantae  subtilitatis  sit  angelica  natura  pen- 
samus.  Neque  enim  sic  a  divina  visione  foras  exeunt,  ut  in- 
ternae  contemplationis  gaudiis  priventur :  quia  si  Conditoris 
aspectum  exeuntes  amitterent,  nee  jacentes  erigere,  nee  igno- 
rantibus  vera  nuntiare  potuissent ;  Fontem  Lucis,  quem  egre- 
dientes  ipsi  perderent,  caecis  nullatenus  propinarent.  In  hoc 
itaque  est  nunc  natura  angelica  a  naturae  nostrae  conditione 
distincta,  quod  nos  et  loco  circumscribimur,  et  caecitatis 
ignorantia  coarctamur:  angelorum  vero  spiritus  loco  quidem 
circumscripti  sunt,  sed  tamen  eorum  scientiae  longe  super  nos 
incomparabiliter  dilatantur.  Interius  quippe  exteriusque  sciendo 
distenti  sunt,  quia  Ipsum  Fontem  scientiae  contemplantur. 
Quid  enim  de  his  quae  scienda  sunt  nesciunt,  qui  scientem 
omnia  sciunt?  Eorum  itaque  scientia  comparatione  nostrae 
valde    dilatata  est,    sed    tamen    comparatione   divinae  scientiae 

*  There  is  a  good  passage  on  this  subject  in -the  book  de  Spirita  et  Aniina 
falsely  ascribed  to  St.  Augustine  (and  given  in  the  Appendix  to  vol.  vi.  in  Migne's 
edition  of  St.  Aug.),  as  also  to  Hugh  of  St.  Victor,  but  which  Aquinas  assigns  to 
a  '  nameless  Cistercian  monk,'  whom  the  Benedictine  editors  of  St.  Aug.  suppose  to 
be  one  Alcherus,  a  monk  of  Clairvaux.  It  runs  thus :  '  Nihil  enim  invisibile  et 
incorporeum  natura  credendum  est  praeter  solum  Deum,  id  est,  Patrem  et  Filium 
et  Spiritura  Sanctum.  Qui  ex  eo  incorporeus  et  invisibilis  dicitur  quia  infinitus 
et  incircumscriptus,  simple.'c  et  sibi  omnibus  modis  sufBciens,  se  ipsum  sustinet 
et  idipsum.  Et  cum  ubique  sit  in  semetipso  invisibilis  et  incorporeus  esse  dig- 
noscitur.  Omnis  vero  rationalis  creatura  corporea  est.  Angeli  et  omnes  virtutes 
corporeae  sunt,  licet  non  came  subsistant.  Ex  eo  enim  intellectuales  naturas 
corporeas  esse  dicimus,  quia  loco  circumscribuntur.* 


NOTE  II.]  are  not  merely  spirits.  413 

angusta :  sicut  et  ipsi  illorum  spiritus  eomparatione  quidem 
nostrorum  corporum,  spiritus  sunt,  sed  eomparatione  summi  et 
ineireumscripti  Spiritus,  corpus.  Et  mittuntur  igitur  et  assis- 
tunt :  quia  et  per  hoc  quod  circumscripti  sunt,  exeunt :  et  per 
hoc,  quod  intus  quoque  praesentes  sunt,  numquam  recedunt. 
Et  Faciem  erg-o  Patris  semper  vident,  et  tamen  ad  nos  veniunt : 
quia  et  ad  nos  spiritali  praesentia  foras  exeunt,  et  tamen  ibi  se, 
unde  recesserant,  per  internam  contemplationem  servant  ^.' 

And  St.  John  Damascene  {Be  Fid.  Orthod.  Lib.  II.  cap.  3, 
quoted  by  Rev.  Robert  Owen,  Dogmatic  Theology,  ch.  viii.  1), 
'  An  Angel  is  called  incorporeal  and  immaterial  as  far  as  relates 
to  us ;  for  everything  being  compared  to  God,  the  Alone  Incom- 
parable, is  found  to  be  crass  and  material ;  for  the  Divinity 
Alone  is  really  (oi/rojs)  immaterial  and  incorporeal.'  Bishop 
Macaire,  Rector  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Academy  of  St.  Petersburg, 
in  his  Theologie  Dogmafique  Orthodoxe  (a  valuable  Exposition  of 
the  Catholic  Faith  as  conceived  by  the  holy  Orthodox  Eastern 
Church,  Three  vols,  CherhuViez,  Paris  and  Geneva,  1^57-1859), 
quotes  the  same  passage,  and  gives  many  valuable  references  to 
the  Fathers.     Vol.  i.  Partie  II.  Sect.  2,  chap.  i.  §  6^,  p.  474. 

Bishop  Bull  says  (Vol.  i.  Serm.  XI.  On  the  Existence  and 
Nature  of  Angels),  '  The  angels  of  God  are  not  such  spirits  as 
God  .  .  .  is.  .  .  .  But  we  cannot  so  certainly  and  positively  tell 
what  kind  of  spirituality  that  of  the  angels  is,  whether  it  be  void 

'  I  have  transcribed  this  beautiful  passage  for  the  sake  of  the  clerical  reader. 
The  priest's  lipn  should  keep  lmo%ch<J(je  ....  for  he  is  the  angel  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  {Mai.  ii.  7)  ;  and  Saint  Gregory  here  shows  us,  in  the  instance  of  the  holy 
angels,  how  exterior  woik,  to  be  effectual  and  blessed,  whetlier  for  consolation  or 
for  instruction,  must  ever  be  conjoined  with  the  'joys  of  the  internal  contem- 
plation' of  the  '  Fount  of  Light,'  revealed  in  Him  Who  is  the  '  Face  of  tlie  Father,' 
even  His  Eternal  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Compare  the  thought  of  Mr.  Keble's 
lines  for  St.  Matthew's  Day: — 

'  There  are  in  this  loud  stunning  tide 
Of  human  care  and  crime. 
With  whom  the  melodies  abide 
Of  th'  everlasting  chime  ; 
Who  carry  music  in  their  heart 
Through  dusky  lane  and  wrangling  mart, 
Plying  their  daily  task  with  busier  feet. 
Because  their  secret  souls  a  holy  strain  repeat.' 


414  Administration  of  the  Universe  [app. 

of  all  manner  of  corporeity,  as  modern  divines  generally  hold,  or 
joined  with  some  certain  corporeity,  not  of  the  grosser  sort,  either 
fleshly,  or  airy,  or  fiery,  but  most  subtle  and  pure,  like  that 
of  the  highest  heaven,  which  is  styled  their  Ihiov  oUriTripLoi', 
their  proper  kabiiafion,  as  some  of  the  ancient  doctors  believed.' 
Bishop  Bull  does  not  tell  us  who  the  '  modern  divines '  of  his 
date  are.  We  cannot  therefore  be  sure  in  what  sense  they  spoke 
of  'corporeity.'  Bull  evidently  would  not  restrict  'corporeity' 
to  the  '  grosser  sort ; '  and  rightly ;  for  any  material  envelope 
of  a  finite  spirit  may  accurately  be  called  a  ''body.'  So  Holy 
Scripture  speaks  of  'heavenly'  as  well  as  'earthly'  bodies,  of 
'  spiritual '  as  well  as  '  psychic '  bodies.  Our  Lord's  declaration 
that  the  risen  saints  in  their  glorified  bodies  shall  be  like,  and 
equal  to,  the  angels,  really  involves  the  fact  that  the  angels  have 
'  bodies  '  of  the  '  spiritual '  and  '  heavenly '  sort  ^. 

This  is  not  an  idle  and  unprofitable  speculation  ;  for  it  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  true  Scriptural  conception  of  the  future  Con- 
summated State,  involving  the  further  conception  (which  is  equally 
Scriptural)  of  a  suitable  and  worthy  dwelling-place,  i,  e.  the  re- 
generated earth,  and  of  a  real  active  fulness  of  happy  social  life  and 
work,  which  offers  a  definite  and  substantial  prospect  in  the  great 
future  to  Christian  Faith  and  Hope.  The  vague,  shadowy, 
unsubstantial,  unimaginable  '  Heaven/  which  dimly  floats  about 
in  the  indefinite  language  generally  current  on  this  class  of 
subjects,  has  furnished  only  too  abundant  material  to  scoffing 
unbelief.  It  certainly  can  never  be  an  effective  counterweight 
to  the  attractive  temptations  of  this  present  life,  or  become  to 
any  human  imagination  solidly  enough  present  and  real  to 
help  any  to  be  content  to  lose  his  life  here,  that  he  may  find  it 
there.  This  thought  is  further  drawn  out  towards  the  close  of 
Lecture  VIII. 

Note  III.  §  46. 

Administration  of  the  Vniverse  hy  the  agency  of  angels. 

St.  Augustine  De  lihero  arhitrio,  III.  xi.  32.  '  Tales  sunt 
optimae,  et  sanctae,  et  sublimes  creaturae  coelestium  vel  super- 

'  St.  Aug.  De  Vtil.  Jejanii,  i.  i  (Migne,  VI.  col.  707)  speaks  of  the  angels  as 
'  spiritus  rationales  coelestibus  corporibus  praesidentes.' 


NOTE  III.]  by  the  agency  of  angels.  415 

coelestium  potestatum,  quibus  solus  Deus  imperat ;  universus 
autem  mundus  subjectus  est.  Sine  istarum  officiisjustis  atque 
perfcetis  esse  universitas  non  potest.'  And  §  '^'>^,  '  lUi  [naturae 
sublimioris  officii,  scil.  angelicao]  data  est  potentia  omnia  con- 
tinendi  officio  proprio  ....  Nee  tamen  sua  majestate  continet 
omnia,  sed  inhaerendo  Illius  Majestati,  et  Ejus  imperiis  devo- 
tissime  obtemperando,  a  Quo  et  per  Quem  et  in  Quo  facta  sunt 
omnia.' 

And  Enarr.  in  Psalm.  CIII.  §  9.  '  Praepositi  sunt  angeli 
coelorum  super  potestates  aereas  et  inde  procedit  verbum  quod 
fit  bic.  Intuentur  enim  legem  fixam,  legem  aeternam,  jubentem 
sine  scriptura,  sine  syllabis,  sine  strepitu,  fixam  semper  et 
stantem ;  intuentur  angeli  corde  mundo,  et  ex  ilia  faciunt 
quidquid  bic  fit,  et  potestates  ex  ilia  ordinantur  a  summis  usque 
in  ima.' 

And  De  Civitate  Dei,  VII.  xxx.  '  Haec  autem  facit  atque 
agit  unus  verus  Deus ;  sed  sicut  Deus,  id  est  ubique  totus,  nullis 
inclusus  locis,  nullis  vinculis  alligatus,  in  nullas  partes  sectilis, 
ex  nulla  parte  mutabilis,  implens  coelum  et  terram  praesente 
potentia,  non  indigente  natura.  Sic  itaque  administrat  omnia 
quae  creavit,  ut  etiam  ipsa  proprios  exercere  et  agere  motus 
sinat.  Quamvis  enim  nibil  esse  possint  sine  Ipso,  non  sunt 
quod  Ipse.  Agit  autem  multa  etiam  per  angelos  :  sed  non  nisi 
ex  Se  Ipso  beatificat  angelos.' 

And  Be  Genesi  ad  litteram,  VIII.  xxiv.  45.  '  Sublimibus 
angelis  Deo  subdite  fruentibus,  et  Deo  beate  servientibus,  sub- 
dita  est  omnis  natura  eorporea,  omnis  irrationalis  vita,  omnis 
voluntas  vel  infirma  vel  prava ;  ut  hoc  de  subditis  vel  cum 
subditis  agant,  quod  naturae  ordo  poscit  in  omnibus,  jubente 
illo  cui  subjccta  sunt  omnia.'  He  speaks  also  [ihid.  xxv.  47)  of 
the  '  creaturae  angelicae  actio,  per  quam  universarum  rerum 
generibus,  maximeque  humane,  providentia  Dei  prospicitur.' 

Bishop  Bull  (Vol.  i.  Serm.  XII.  The  Office  of  the  holy  Angeh). 
'  The  providence  of  God  in  the  government  of  this  lower 
world,  and  therein  more  especially  of  the  children  of  men,  and 
most  especially  of  those  who  love  and  fear  him,  is  in  great  part 
administered  by  the  holy  angels.' 


41 6  All  rational  beings  have  Free- Will.         [app. 

The  reader  may  also  consult  Chapter  VIII.  of  the  Rev. 
Robert  Owen's  Dogmatic  Theology.  He  says,  §  3  :  '  They  are 
God's  viceg-erents  in  the  administration  of  the  universe;  a 
position  which  is  amply  supported  by  testimonies  of  Scripture/ 
which  he  proceeds  to  give.  Also,  ibid. :  '  Besides,  the  Angels 
are  regarded  as  presiding  in  some  mysterious  way  over  the 
destinies  of  kingdoms  and  nations.  This  notion  is  universal  in 
Christian  antiquity.' 

Note  IV.  §  49. 

T/ie  essence  of  the  first  sin  was  Pride, 

So  Hooker,  in  the  valuable  fragment  printed  as  an  Appendix 
to  Book  V.  (Vol.  ii.  in  Keble's  ed.)  in  the  third  part.  Touching 
Predestination,  p.  567 :  '  In  presupposing  that  the  will  of  God 
did  determine  to  bestow  eternal  life  in  the  nature  of  a  reward, 
and  that  rewards  grow  from  voluntary  duties,  and  voluntary 
duties  from  free  agents  ;  it  followeth  that  whose  end  was  eternal 
life,  their  state  must  needs  imply  freedom  and  liberty  of  will. 
A  part  therefore  of  the  excellency  of  their  nature  was  the  free- 
dom of  their  will  ....  Out  of  the  liberty  wherewith  God  by 
Creation  endued  reasonable  creatures  [the  italics  are  Hooker's], 
angels  and  men,  there  ensued  sin  through  their  own  voluntary 
choice  of  evil,  neither  by  the  appointment  of  God  nor  yet 
without  his  permission  ....  Touching  permission,  if  God  do 
naturally  hate  sin,  and  by  his  knowledge  foresee  all  things, 
wherefore  did  not  his  power  prevent  sin  ?  ...  .  Because,  in 
wisdom  (whereupon  his  determinate  will  dependeth),  he  saw  it 
reasonable  and  good  to  create  both  angels  and  men  perfectly 
free,  which  freedom  being  a  part  of  their  very  nature,  they 
could  not  without  it  be  that  which  they  were :  but  God  must 
have  left  them  uncreated,  if  not  endued  with  liberty  of  mind. 
Angels  and  men  had  before  their  fall  the  grace  whereby  they 
might  have  continued  if  they  would  without  sin :  yet  so  great 
o-race  God  did  not  think  good  to  bestow  on  them,  whereby 
they  might  be  exempted  from  possibility  of  sinning ;  because 
this  latter  belongeth  to  their  perfection  who  see  God  in  fulness 
of  glory,  and  not  to  them  who  as  yet  serve  him  under  hope. 


NOTE  IV.]        The  angels  fell  through  Pride.  417 

....  We  see  therefore  how  sin  entered  into  the  world.  The 
first  that  sinned  ag-ainst  God  was  Satan.  And  then  through 
Satan's  fraudulent  instigation  man  also.  The  sin  of  devils  grew 
originally  from  themselves  without  suggestion  or  incitement 
outwardly  offered  them  ....  and  as  our  Saviour  himself  saith 
of  them,  The}'  stood  not  in  the  truth  [St.  John  viii.  44]  whereby 
it  may  be  very  probably  thought  that  the  happiness  even  of 
angels  depended  chief  1/  vpon  their  belief  in  a  truth  which  God  did 
reveal  unto  them  [Hooker's  italics]  :  The  truth  of  that  personal 
conjunction  which  should  be  of  God  with  men.  For  Christ, 
although  a  Redeemer  onl}^  unto  men,  might  notwithstanding  be 
revealed  unto  angels  as  their  Lord,  without  any  reference  at  all 
to  sin,  which  the  knowledge  of  Christ  a  Redeemer  doth  neces- 
sarily presuppose.  So  that  man,  their  inferior  by  degree  of 
nature,  they  must  in  Christ  the  Son  of  God  advanced  unto  so 
great  honour  adore.  Which  mystery  the  too  great  admiration 
of  their  own  excellency  being  so  likely  to  have  made  incredible, 
it  is  unto  us  the  more  credible,  that  infidelity  through  pride  was 
their  ruin.' 

So  Bishop  'Macaire  (Theolof/ie  J)or/m.  Orthodoxe,  §  68),  '  Suivant 
quelques-uns  (e.  g.  St.  Gr6g.  le  Theologien)  ce  chef  etait,  avant 
sa  chute,  le  premier  et  le  plus  parfait  de  tons  les  esprits  crees^;' 
and,  '  le  diable  .  .  .  tomba  par  son  orgueil.  Cette  opinion  est 
effectivement  fondee  sur  la  Parole  de  Dieu  .  .  .  .  i  Tim.  iii.  2,  6 
....  Parmi  les  saints  Peres  qui  partageaient  cette  idee  nous 
nommerons  Saint  Gregoire  le  theologien  {Ilijmn.  Sacr.  Serm.  YI.); 
Saint  Athanase  le  Grand  (Oraf.  de  rirginifat.  in  Opjh  t.  I.  p.  824, 
ed.  Commel.) ;   Saint  Ambroise  [Epist.  Ixxxiv.  ^) ;   Saint  Leon, 

'  St.  Gregory  tlie  Great  (Moral.  IV.  9)  speaks  of  him  as  '  That  apostate  angel, 
who  had  been  so  created  as  to  be  pre-eminent  over  all  the  rest  of  the  legions  of 
angels.'  Macaire  quotes  also  St.  John  Damascene  {Fiil.  Orthod.  II.  4)  as  speaking 
of  him  as  '  Parmi  les  puissances  angeliijues,  le  clief  de  la  celeste  hierarchic,  auquel 
Dieu  commit  la  surveillance  de  la  terre.'  TertuUian  (Adv.  Marcion.  II.  10)  calls 
him  '  eminentissimus  angelorum,'  '  archangelus,'  and  '  sapientissimus  omnium, 
antequam  diabolus.' 

*  I  cannot  verify  this  reference,  but  I  find  the  following  in  St.  Ambrose : — Expos. 
in  Ps.  cxviii.  (i.e.  cxix.),  vers.  51,  p.  1046  (Migne,  Ambr.  I.  1283),  '  Ipse  diahulus 
per  superbiam  naturae  suae  amisit  gratiam.  Denique  dum  dicit :  Ponam  (hronum 
meum  supernubes  .  . .  et  ero  similis  Altiffiino  {Enai.  xiv.  13  et  14),  consortiis  excidit 

E  e 


4i8  The  sill  of  the  angels.  [app. 

pape  de  Rome  ^ ;  .  .  .  .  En  general,  ce  fut  I'id^e  de  presque  tous 
les  anciens  Doctcurs  de  I'Eglise ;  on  la  trouve  dans  Orig-ene,  in 
Ezeeh.  Horn.  ix.  3 ;  Basile  le  Grand,  sur  le  ii%  et  sur  le  x"  chap, 
d'lsaie ;  Chrysostome,  in  Genes.  Horn.  xxii. ;  Cyrille  d'Alex- 
andrie,  Contra  Anthropomorpli.  cap.  1 7 ;  Theodoret,  Ahr.  du  Bogm. 
div. ;  Jerome,  in  cap.  1 6  Ezec/i. ;  Augustin  2,  Jean  Damascene, 
Ua^p.  de  la  Foi  Orthodoxe,  liv.  ii.  chap.  4,  etc' 

On  the  question,  '  en  quoi  proprement  consista  I'orgueil  de 
I'esprit  dechu,  qui  constitua  son  premier  peche  ? ,'  Macaire  says 
{ibid.),  '  A  cet  egard  les  opinions  furent  partagees.  Quelques- 
uns,  se  fondant  sur  les  paroles  d'lsaie  (xiv.  13,  14)  pensaient 
que  le  diable  eut  la  pretention  d'etre  egal  a  Dieu  dans  son 
essence  et  de  sieger  avec  lui  sur  un  seul  et  meme  trone  (Cyrill. 
Alex,  in  Joann.  lib.  v.)  .  .  .  .  Suivant  d'antres,  I'Etoile  du  matin 
tombee  du  ciel  aurait  refuse  d'adorer  le  Fils  de  Dieu,  soit  qu'elle 
eut  envie  ses  prerogatives  (Lactantius,  Biv.  Inst.  ii.  8),  soit 
qu'ayant  su  par  revelation  que  ce  Fils  de  Dieu  devait  unjour 
souffrir,  elle  eilt  doute  de  sa  divinite,  et  n'eilt  pas  consenti  a  le 
reconnaitre  pour  Dieu  (S.  Greg.  Mag.  Moral,  ii.  17).' 
•  The  student  may  also  consult  Owen,  Dogmatic  Theology, 
chap.  ix. 

angelorum.'  And  in  the  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  (if  indeed  that 
be  a  genuine  work  of  St.  Ambrose),  chap.  xii.  i6,  '  Non  alia  sapientcs,  Alta 
sapere  superbia  est ;  nam  et  diabolus  cum  alta  sapuit,  apostatavit.' 

'■  E.g.  Serm.  IX.,  i.  e.  De  Collectis  TV.  (Migne's  ed.  vol.  i.  col.  i6o),  '  Incentor 
ille  auctorque  peccati  primum  superbus  ut  caderet,  deinde  invidus  ut  noceret, 
quia  in  veritate  non  stelit '  {Joan.  viii.  44), 

-  Macaire  does  not  here  give  a  traceable  reference ;  but  the  following  may 
suffice  : — DeVera Eeligione,  cap.  xiii.  26,  '  Ille  autera  angelus  magis  seipsum  quam 
Deum  diligendo,  subditus  ei  esse  noluit,  et  intumuit  per  superbiam,  et  a  .summa 
essentia  deficit,  et  lapsus  est.'  De  Civ.  Dei,  XI.  xv. :  '  Illud,  quod  ab  initio  diabolus 
peccat,  non  ab  initio  ex  quo  creatus  est  peccare  putandus  est ;  sed  ab  initio  peccati, 
quod  ab  ipsius  superbia  coeperit  esse  peccatum.'  XII.  vi. :  'Cum  vero  causa 
iniseriae  malorum  angelorum  quaeritur,  ea  merito  occurrit,  quod  ab  Illo  qui  summe 
est  aversi,  ad  seipsos  conversi  sunt,  qui  non  summe  sunt :  et  hoc  vitium  quid 
aliud  quam  superbia  iiuncupatur?  Initium  quippe  omnis  peccati  supei-hia'  (Eccli. 
X.  15).  XIV.  xi.  :  'Superbus  ille  angelus,  ac  per  hoc  invidus,  per  eamdem  super- 
biam a  Deo  ad  semetipsum  conversus,  quodam  quasi  tyrannico  fastu  gaudere 
subditis,  quam  esse  subditus  eligens,  de  spirituali  paradiso  cecidit.' 


NOTE  v.]  419 

Note  V,  §  51. 
The  fall  of  the  angels  irremediable. 

Tertullian,  On  the  Flesh  of  Christ,  §  14,  '  Never  has  restoration 
been  promised  to  the  ang-els.  Christ  has  received  from  the  Father 
no  commission  about  the  salvation  of  angels.  What  the  Father 
has  neither  promised,  nor  committed  to  Him,  Christ  could  not 
carry  out.' 

St.  Augustine,  On  St.  Johns  Gospel,  Tract.  CX.  (Miffne,\o\.  iii, 
p.  1924),  'Since  however  we  know  that  the  Creator  of  all  good 
has  conferred  no  grace  for  the  restoration  of  bad  angels,  we  infer 
that  their  fault  has  been  judged  so  much  the  more  damnable  as 
their  nature  was  more  sublime  than  ours.  For  by  how  much 
they  were  better  than  we,  by  so  much  the  less  ought  they  to  have 
sinned.  Whereas,  in  offending  the  Creator,  they  proved  so  much 
the  more  assuredly  ungrateful  for  His  kindness,  by  how  much 
they  had  been  created  with  greater  mercy ;  nor  were  they 
satisfied  with  forsaking  Him,  but  they  must  also  deceive  us.' 

And  on  Galatians,  iii.  20  (ib.  p.  2122),  'The  angels  who  fell 
not  from  the  vision  of  God  have  no  need  of  a  mediator  by  whom 
they  should  be  reconciled.  And  the  angels  who,  with  none  to 
persuade  them,  fell  by  their  own  unfaithfulness,  are  not  reconciled 
by  any  mediator.' 

And  Against  Julianus,  Book  VI.  xxii.  [3Ilgne,  x.  p.  1553),  com- 
paring the  sin  of  Adam  with  that  of  his  posterity,  he  says,  *  For 
by  how  much  a  rational  nature  is  itself  higher,  by  so  much  its 
fall  is  more  ;  and  as  its  sin  is  more  incredible,  so  is  it  more  to  be 
condemned.  And  so  the  angels  fell  irreparably,  forasmuch  as 
To  whom  more  is  given,  from  him  is  more  required  {St.  Luke  xii.  48). 
And  so  the  more  excellent  their  nature,  the  more  they  owed  a 
willing  obedience.  Hence  by  not  doing  what  they  ought  they 
are  so  punished,  as  that  they  can  no  longer  even  wish  [to  do 
what  they  ought],  and  are  destined  to  even  eternal  torments.' 

And,  Clt^  of  God,  Xlll.  xxiv.  6  [Migne,  vii.  p.  402),    'The 

E  e  2 


420  The  fall  of  the  angels  irremediable  ;         [app. 

deserter  angels^  although  in  a  certain  sense  they  are  dead  by 
sinning  (for  they  deserted  the  Well  of  Life,  which  is  God,  by 
drinking  Whereof  they  might  have  lived  in  wisdom  and  blessed- 
ness) :  yet  could  not  so  die  as  to  cease  altogether  to  live  and  feel. 
For  they  were  created  immortal ;  and  so,  after  the  last  judgment, 
they  will  be  cast  down  into  the  second  death,  so  as  not  even 
there  to  be  without  life ;  forasmuch  as  they  will  not  even  be 
without  feeling,  since  they  will  be  in  pains.'  This  passage,  it 
may  be  observed,  is  strongly  adverse  to  the  modern  notion  of 
'  Conditional  Immortality.' 

St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Sum.  Part  I,  Qusest.  Ixiv.  Art.  2  [M'lgne, 
vol.  i.  p.  1137),  'It  must  be  firmly  held,  according  to  the 
Catholic  Faith,  That  both  the  will  of  the  good  angels  is  con- 
firmed in  good,  and  the  will  of  demons  obstinately  fixed  in  evil. 
Yet  you  must  seek  the  cause  of  this  fixedness,  not  in  the  gravity 
of  their  fault,  but  in  the  condition  of  their  nature  or  state.  For, 
as  Damascene  says  [Oriliod.  Faith,  Bk.  II,  ch.  iv),  Their  fall  is  to 
the  angels  zvhat  death  is  to  men.  Now  it  is  manifest  that  all 
deadly  sins  of  men,  great  or  small,  are  pardonable  before  death  ; 
but  after  death  unpardonable,  and  abiding  for  ever.'  The  whole 
passage  deserves  study.  He  argues  that  in  the  angels  both 
'  Apprehension '  (or  Perception)  and  '  Will '  have  a  wider  sweep, 
and  consequently  a  more  decisive  operation,  than  in  men.  '  An 
Angel  apprehends  immoveably,  through  intellect  [or  vovi\  in  the 
same  way  that  we  men  apprehend  a  few  first  principles  [e.  g. 
"  The  whole  is  greater  than  its  part "],  but  man  by  reason  [Ao'yo?, 
Uiscnrsns,  a  weaker  faculty  than  vom,  being  mediate  and  indirect, 
and  not  intuitive],  apprehends  moveably,  by  running  [discurrendo) 
from  one  thing  to  another.  Hence  also  the  will  of  man  adheres 
to  anything  moveably,  as  having  the  power  of  even  departing 
from  it  and  adhering  to  the  contrary ;  whereas  the  will  of  angels 
adheres  fixedly  and  immoveably.  .  .  .  Hence  it  has  been  usually 
said  that  "  the  free  will  of  man  is  flexible,  both  before  his  election 
and  afterwards ;  but  the  free  will  of  the  angels  is  flexible  before 
election,  but  not  afterwards."  Wherefore  the  good  angels,  once 
adhering  to  righteousness,  were  confirmed  therein ;  but  the  evil 
ones,  sinning,  were  obstinately  fixed  in  sin.  .  .  .     The  mercy  of 


NOTE  v.]   Tertullian,  Augustine^  Aquinas,  Ansehn.  42 1 

God  delivers  penitents  from  sin.  But  those  who  are  not  capable  of 
repentance  adhere  immoveably  to  evil,  and  are  not  delivered  by 
the  divine  mercy.  .  .  .  The  sin  whereby  the  devil  first  sinned 
still  remains  in  him,  as  to  the  desire.' 

And  again,  Sum.  Part  III.  QnaDst.  iv.  Art.  i  {Migne,  iv.  p.  ^^), 
he  argues  that  it  is  only  in  human  nature  that  the  two  conditions, 
viz.  o^  fitness,  or  meeiness,  or  digniijj  (congruentia),  and  of  necessiiy, 
are  both  found.  To  the  irrational  creation  dignify  is  wanting; 
to  the  superhuman,  or  angelic,  necessity.  For  the  angels  are  not 
generated,  as  men  are  ;  nor  are  they,  as  men  are,  born  under  a 
law  of  original  sin,  to  the  inheritance  of  a  tainted  nature.  There 
is  no  abstract  common  angelic  nature.  Each  angel  is,  from  his 
first  creation,  perfect  in  his  own  personality.  Hence  it  follows 
that  the  Son  of  God  could  not  have  taken  the  angelic  nature 
without  superseding,  or,  indeed,  annihilating,  the  personality  of 
some  one  particular  angel.  And  the  sin  of  the  evil  angels,  who 
might  seem  to  satisfy  the  condition  of  necessity,  is,  he  says, 
irremediable. 

St.  Anselm  alludes  to  this  question  in  two  places  of  his 
treatise  Why  God  was  made  man,  viz.  i.  17  and  ii.  21.  In  the 
first,  to  Boso's  question,  '  Why  the  fallen  angels  could  not  be 
restored,'  he  simply  answers,  '  When  you  see  the  difficulty  of  our 
restoration,  you  will  understand  the  impossibility  of  their  recon- 
ciliation ; '  and  proceeds  to  give  reasons  why  the  loss  could  not 
be  repaired  by  the  ci'eation  of  more  angels,  but  must  be  made 
up  from  mankind.  The  second  passage  is  as  follows  : — '  As  for 
the  reconciliation  of  the  devil,  about  which  you  enquired,  you 
will  perceive  it  to  be  impossible,  if  you  diligently  consider  that 
of  man.  For  just  as  man  could  not  be  reconciled  unless  by  God 
becoming  Man,  and  so  able  to  die,  and  one  by  Whose  righteous- 
ness that  might  be  restored  to  God  which  He  had  lost  by  Man's 
sin  ;  so  the  condemned  angels  cannot  be  saved,  unless  by  God 
becoming  an  angel,  one  who  could  die,  and  who  through  his 
righteousness  could  recover  for  God  what  the  sins  of  the  others 
had  taken  away  from  Him.  And  just  as  man  could  not  {iion 
detjuit)  be  lifted  up  again  by  means  of  another  man  who  was  not 
of  the  same  race,  even  though  he  were  of  the  same  nature  ;  so  no 


42  2    SL  Anse/m  07t  the  7ion-redemption  of  angels,    [app. 

angel  can  [debet)  be  saved  by  means  of  another  angel,  although 
they  are  all  of  the  same  nature ;  since  they  are  not  of  the  same 
race,  as  men  are.  For  the  angels  are  not  all  from  one  angel,  as 
all  men  are  from  one  man.  Again ;  this  also  hinders  their 
restoration,  That  as  they  fell  when  none  other  tempted  them  to 
fall,  so  they  ought  [clebent)  to  rise  up  again  without  help  from 
any  other ;  and  this  is  impossible  for  them.  For  they  cannot 
otherwise  be  restored  to  the  dignity  which  they  would  have  had ; 
since  without  any  other  help  they  would,  by  their  own  power, 
which  they  had  received,  have  stood  fast  in  the  truth  [St.  John 
viii.  44),  if  they  had  not  sinned.  Wherefore,  if  any  thinks  that 
the  redemption  through  our  Saviour  ought  some  time  to  be  ex- 
tended even  to  them,  he  is  shown  by  reason  itself  to  be  misled  by 
reasoning.  And  this  I  say,  not  as  if  the  value  [pretium)  of  His 
Death  did  not,  in  its  greatness,  prevail  against  all  the  sins  of 
men  and  of  angels ;  but  because  a  reason  that  cannot  be  altered 
is  against  the  restoration  of  the  lost  angels.'  The  first  of  St. 
Anselm's  two  reasons  is  identical  with  the  second  quoted  above 
from  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  viz.  That  there  is  not  the  same 
solidarity  and  interdependence  in  the  angelic  as  in  human 
nature,  and  so  we  cannot  conceive  the  possibility,  in  their  case, 
of  their  sacramental  ingrafting  into  a  new  stock  ;  nor  understand 
how  One  in  their  nature  could  so,  as  Head  of  all,  represent  all,  as 
that  His  Righteousness  and  Life  and  Death  should  atone  for  all. 
If,  as  rationalising  Christians  view  it,  the  Life  of  Christ  were 
but  the  exemplary  exhibition  of  perfect  morality,  and  His  Death, 
so  far  as  it  was  more  than  part  of  that,  only  the  crowning  proof 
of  love,  and  the  supreme  motive  of  gratitude ;  then  indeed  it,  or  a 
similar  exhibition  in  angelic  nature,  might  avail,  by  an  external 
motive  and  attractive  power,  for  the  recovery  of  the  angels  also. 
But  it  cost  more  to  redeem  our  souls.  Our  disease  is  deeper  than 
could  be  reached  by  anything  merely  operating  as  a  standard,  or 
even  a  motive,  presented  ab  extra,  on  a  will  itself  weakened  and 
biassed  by  the  act  of  sin. 


NOTE  VI.]  423 

Note  VI.  §  71. 
Visible  appearance  of  the  Son  of  God  to  Adam  in  Paradise. 

St.  Augustine,  On  Genesis  {Ad  Lilt.  VIII.  xviii.  37),  '  How  then 
did  God  speak  to  him  [Adam]  ?  Whether  inwardly,  in  his  mind, 
through  the  understanding,  that  is,  so  that  he  should  intelligently 
perceive  the  will  and  command  of  God  without  any  bodily  sounds 
or  resemblances  of  bodily  things  ?  I  do  not  think  that  God  so 
spake  to  the  first  man.  For  the  Scripture  narrates  these  things 
in  such  wise  that  we  should  rather  believe  that  God  spake  to 
man  in  Paradise  in  the  same  way  as  He  afterwards  spake  to  the 
Fathers,  to  Abraham,  to  Moses,  that  is,  in  some  bodily  form  or 
appearance.  Hence  is  it  also  that  they  Jieard  His  Voice,  as  He 
walked  in  Paradise  at  eventide,  and  kid  themselves  {Gen.  iii.  8).' 

Again,  ibid,  xxvii.  50,  speaking  of  this  same  passage  of 
Genesis,  he  says,  '  That  this  [the  visibly  walking  in  the  garden] 
was  done,  not  by  means  of  the  very  Substance  Itself  of  God,  but 
by  means  of  the  creature  which  is  subject  to  Him,  no  man  who 
knows  the  Catholic  Faith  can  by  any  means  doubt.  But  I 
have  here  thought  it  right  to  speak  somewhat  more  fully  on  this 
subject,  because  certain  heretics  [the  Arians,  Benedictine  Notc\ 
think  that  the  Substance  of  the  Son  of  God  is  visible  of  itself 
without  the  assumption  of  any  bodily  form,  and  that,  accordingly, 
before  He  took  a  body  of  the  Virgin  He  was  Himself  (they 
imagine)  seen  by  the  Fathers,  as  if  it  were  only  of  God  the 
Father  that  it  is  said.  Whom  no  man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see  (i  Ti/ii. 
vi.  16) ;  because  the  Son  was  seen  before  He  took  on  Him  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  that  by  His  own  very  Substance  ;  which 
impiety  is  to  be  utterly  rejected  by  Catholic  minds.'  I  have 
here  rendered  St.  Augustine's  Substantia  by  Substance,  the  phrase 
of  our  English  Nicene  Creed  and  Articles.  Perhaps  Essence  {pvoia) 
would  convey  the  thought  better  to  modern  ears.  The  passage 
is  valuable  as  showing  exactly  the  false  inference  (which  St. 
Augustine  calls  '  impietas ')  of  the  Arians,  who,  appealing  to  the 
general  belief  of  the  Church  that  the  Son  of  God  did  appear  in 
visible  form  to  man  under  the  old  Covenants,  argued  illogically 
from  that  admitted  fact  that  He  was  essentially  inferior  to  the 


424      The  visible  Appearaiices  of  God,  related  in  [app. 

Father  even  iu  His  pre-existent  Nature,  and  so  less  than  Divine. 
The  Catholic  knows  that  invisibility  is  not  a  Personal  attribute  of 
the  Father  only,  but  an  essential  attribute  of  the  Godhead  as 
such,  and  so  common  to  the  Three  Persons.  The  form  seen  was 
not  the  uncreated  Ipsa  Substantia  of  the  Son,  which  is  as  invisible 
as  that  of  the  Father,  being-  indeed  that  of  the  Father,  nor  was 
the  Ipsa  Suhstantia  seen  in  it ;  but  it  was  a  temporarily-assumed 
form,  from  the  '  Subdita  Ei  creatura.'  See  Lecture  IV.  §§  89, 
90,  p.  179,  &c. 

Thomas  Scott,  in  his  Commentary  on  Gen.  iii.  8,  says :  '  Some 
visible  tokens  of  the  Lord's  Presence,  perhaps  in  human  form, 
seem  here  intimated,  of  which  we  shall  hereafter  find  undeniable 
instances ;  and  which  should  be  considered  as  anticipations  of 
Rls  incarnation,  who  is  called  the  "  Word  of  God." ' 

Lange,  on  the  same,  in  his  Bibel-werk  (edited  by  Schaff,  pub. 
by  T.  &  T.  Clark,  Edinburgh,  1868),  says  : — '  Delitzsch  maintains 
that  God  appeared  to  man  as  one  man  appears  to  another,  though 
this  had  not  been  the  original  mode  of  the  divine  converse  with 
him.  The  Theophanies  had  their  beginning  first  after  the  fall ; 
and  according  to  his  explanation  "  God  now  for  the  first  time 
holds  converse  with  men  in  an  outward  manner,  corresponding 
to  their  materialisation  and  alienated  state."  On  the  other  hand 
Keil  maintains,  "that  God  held  converse  with  the  first  men  in  a 
visible  form,  as  a  Father  and  Educator  of  His  children,  and  that 
this  was  the  original  mode  of  the  Divine  revelation,  not  coming 
in  for  the  first  time  after  the  fall."  ....  We  must  regard  as 
unanswered,  in  what  respect  the  Theophanies  (which  were  mediated 
in  all  cases  through  vision-seeing  states  of  soul)  are  to  be 
distinguished  from  real  outward  appearances  in  human  form.' 

Keil  seems  more  right  than  Delitzsch;  in  whose  language, 
connecting  '  materialisation '  with  man's  '  alienated  state,'  there 
is  a  latent  Manichaeism.  Man  was  '  material '  as  God  made  him. 
There  was  no  more  reason  against  the  '  mode  of  the  Divine  con- 
verse '  being  outward  and  visible  before  the  Fall  than  afterwards. 
Lange's  assertion,  that  'the  Theophanies  were  mediated  in  all  cases 
through  vision-seeing  states  of  soul,'  is  mere  assumption ;  and 
contrary  to  the  plain  meaning  of  the  Bible  narrative,  which,  in 


NOTE  VI.]      the  Bible,  were  real  and  outward.  425 

most  cases  describe  them  simply  as  '  real  outward  appearances  in 
human  form.' 

The  distinction  between  prophetic  'vision'  and  'real  outward 
appearances  '  seems  marked  in  Numbers  xii.  6,  '  1/  there  be  a 
prophet  amovg  you,  I  the  Lord  will  make  myself  known  unto  him  in 
a  vision,  I  tvill  speak  unto  him  in  a  dream.  Not  so  my  servant  Moses. 
He  is  faithful  in  all  my  house.  With  him  will  I  speak  mouth  to 
mouth,  even  apparently,  and  not  in  dark  speeches,  and  the  similitude  <f 
the  Loud  (n'in''  P3?pr)  shall  he  behold.  Compare  Exod.  xxxiii.  9, 
when,  after  the  sin  of  the  golden  calf,  to  distinguish  the  '  faithful- 
ness/ of  Moses  as  contrasted  with  the  unsteadfastness  of  Aaron 
and  the  people,  the  cloudy  pillar  descended,  and  the  LoEB  talked 
loith  Hoses,  and  spake  unto  him  face  to  face,  as  a  man  speaketh  unto 
his  friend,  just  as  at  the  tent  door  He  had  talked  with  Abraham 
the  friend  of  God  {Gen.  xviii.  i  ;  Isa.  xli.  8;  St.  James  ii.  23), 
and  with  Jacob  at  Peniel  (xxxii.  30).  But  there  are  degrees  of 
nearness  in  the  talking/ace  to  face  ;  for  The  Lobd  talked  tvith  the 
people  face  to  face  in  the  mount  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  {Beut. 
V.  4).  What  is  common  to  all  such  instances  is  a  certainly 
objective  manifestation  by  '  outward  appearance  '  and  audible 
'  voice '  as  opposed  to  an  inward  and  subjective  '  vision  ■'  to  the 
spirit  and  mind  only.  But  while  Moses  saw  the  similitude 
ipciyyrs),  it  is  expressly  said  that  the  people  did  not  {JDeid.  iv. 
12,  15) ;  they  only  heard  a  voice,  and  saw  the  fire.  For  ordinary 
saints  the  vision  of  the  Likeness,  or  Similitude,  of  God  (which  is 
Christ)  is  reserved  for  the  future  life.  David  anticipates  it  in 
Fsalm  xvii.  15,  I  shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake,  2vUh  Thy  likeness, 
i.e.  with  the  sight  of  Thine  Image  or  Similitude  (^n3'^?2ri,  Lxx. 
yopTacrO^'](Toixai  ip  tcS  dcpdrjvat  tijv  bo^av  aov)  ^. 

'  The  Lxx.  in  Numbers  xxii.  8,  also,  renders  nspn  by  So^av  (rfiv  Sofac  Kvpiov 
€2"5«) ;  which  is  too  strong  an  expression,  and  iscontnidictedby  Exodus  xxxiii.  iS-23, 
so  far  as  regards  Moses  in  tlie  days  of  his  flesh.  The  Glory  is,  as  one  may  so  say, 
'  within,'  or  'behind'  the  visilile  similitude  or  likeness;  but  does  not  fully  shine 
forth,  since  mortal  man  could  not  bear  it.  Perhaps  Ao£a  (which,  etymologically, 
would  mean  visible  'jlory)  might  mean  to  a  Greek  less  than  T2D  to  a  Hebrew. 
Hence  Lxx.  in  Exod.  33,  iS  renders  itib-dnn:  '3Nin  'E^</>di'icroc  jxoi  atavruv. 
[Cod.  Alex.  Ad^vv  noi  t^c  atavTov  5ofar],  as  if  with  a  feeling  that,  for  Ihcit passage, 
T^v  Su^av  aov  merely  would  not  have  been  strong  enough. 


426  Dr.  Pusey's  estimate  [app. 


Note  VII,  §  87,     On  the  Theophames. 

The  following-  passages  are  here  given  from  the  writings  of  the 
early  Christian  Fathers,  in  illustration,  for  the  English  reader, 
of  the  original  and  primitive  view  of  tlie  '  Theophanies ' ;  viz. 
That  it  was  the  Eternal  Son  Himself  Who  did,  visibly,  as  the 
'  Angel  of  the  LoBD '  or  otherwise,  manifest  Himself,  in  human 
or  angelic  form,  temporarily  assumed  for  the  purpose,  under  the 
old  Covenants. 

It  should  be  observed  that,  from  the  different  and  distant 
localities  to  which  they  belonged,  the  writers  cited  are  (so  it 
happens)  singularly  representative  of  the  whole  Church  ;  and 
further  that  they  introduce  this  view,  as  their  subject  or 
argument  requires,  not  as  if  it  itself  needed  argument  or  support, 
or  as  an  idea  of  their  own,  but  as  the  current  thought  of  the 
Church  of  their  day,  universally  acknowledged  and  accepted,  and 
so  capable  of  being  itself  employed  as  an  argument.  Later 
writers  who  oppose  it,  or  hesitate  about  it,  yet  admit  one  and  all 
its  general,  nay,  universal  prevalence  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the 
Church.  There  is,  in  truth,  a  consensus  against  which  the 
hesitations  of  Saint  Augustine  really  avail  but  little. 

I.  St.  Justin  Maetyr,  born  in  Samaria  about  a.d.  100,  suffered 
at  Rome  a.d.  166.  I  give  the  extracts  from  the  Oxford  Transla- 
tion in  the  Library  of  the  Fathers.  The  Preface  introducing  that 
Translation,  and  written  by  Dr.  Pusey  upon  an  unfinished  draft 
by  the  Rev.  John  Barrow,  D.D,,  speaks  thus  of  the  value  of 
St.  Justin's  writings : — 

^  He  had  ample  means  of  knowing  what  was  the  faith  and 
practice  of  Christians  throughout  the  world  in  his  own  as  well  as 
in  earlier  times  (p.  iii.)  ....  Eusebius  .  .  attests  the  estimation 
in  which  his  writings  were  held  as  authentic  descriptions  of  the 
Christian  Church  of  his  age.  In  statement  of  fact,  therefore, 
respecting  Christian  history  and  doctrines,  St.  Justin  may  be 
regarded  as  most  trustworthy  '  (p.  iv.)  '  The  most  important  use 
of  the  writings  of  this  early  age  is  to  be  found  in  the  evidence 
which  they  offered  respecting  the  doctrines  then  held  by  the  body 


NOTE  VII.]  of  St.  Jtistin  Martyr.  427 

of  Christians  spread  throughout  the  world.  It  is  indeed  to  us  a 
matter  of  the  highest  concern  to  know  assuredly  what  the  truths 
were  which  our  Blessed  Lord  and  His  Apostles  taught.  And  in 
connection  with  what  we  read  in  Holy  Scripture,  and  that  which 
the  Church  teaches  from  Scripture,  the  testimony  given  by  the 
faith  of  the  sub-Apostolic  Church  is  invaluable'  (p.  xi).  '  That 
Justin  on  the  whole  represented  faithfully  what  the  universal 
Church  of  his  own  age  held,  we  may  feel  assured  from  the  fact 
already  noticed,  his  publishing  the  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  for  the 
purpose  of  challenging  contradiction  if  he  had  been  unfaithful  in 
his  representations;  as  well  as  from  the  esteem  in  which  his 
writings  were  held  by  the  Church  of  his  own  and  the  following 
age'  (p.  xiii).  From  this  favourable  estimate  of  St.  Justin, 
Dr.  Pusey  (himself  inclining,  see  §  94,  p.  191,  to  prefer  the 
later  view  of  the  Theophanies)  proceeds  somewhat  to  detract 
in  regard  to  the  matter  before  us  in  this  Note.  He  says 
(p.  xiv.),  '  It  is  very  necessary  to  keep  in  mind,  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  views  and  theories 
formed  respecting  it,  no  less  than  from  the  arguments  by  which 
Theologians  maintain  it ;  even,  though  those  views  be  widely 
spread  and  generally  received.  For  instance,  it  is  quite  certain 
that  the  Church  held  most  deeply  the  true  Divinity  of  our 
Blessed  Lord,  though  many  of  the  arguments  by  which  Justin 
would  establish  it  from  the  Old  Testament  may  seem  invalid,  and 
based  upon  erroneous  notions.  One  may  question  with  St. 
Augustine,  whether  the  appearances  recorded  in  the  early  Books 
of  Scripture  were  those  of  the  Son  Himself  personally,  as 
St,  Justin,  in  common  with  almost  ^  all  Christian  antiquity  until 

'  Dr.  Pusey  does  not  give  references  to  any  early  exceptions.  The  few  tliere 
are  apply  chiefly  to  the  appearance  of  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  to  Joshua. 
Among  them  are,  i.  8t.  Athanasius,  see  p.  457  :  2.  Theodorct  (a.D.  450)  who,  in 
Quamt.  iv.  in  Jcmmfilium  Naue  says  'I  think  it  was  Michael  the  Archangel,'  but 
(luotes  no  authority,  and  gives  no  reason  except  the  erroneous  view  (see  §  99.  p. 
200)  that  a  created  angel  was  permanently  substituted  as  the  guardian  of  Israel 
after  the  sin  of  the  calf;  and,  3.  The  anonymous  and  undated  scholion  to  Valesius' 
MS.  of  Eusebius  (Hist.  I.  2)  see  §  loi,  p.  206.  Thus  Dr.  Pusey 's  qualifying 
'almost'  has  but  little  support.  Nor  is  there  more  for  the  extraordinary  state- 
ments of  Dr.  INlill  {Myth.  Inlerp.  Gosp.  Append.  E.  p.  355)  that  Theodoret's  opinion 
has,  '  with  two  remarkable  exceptions  (viz.  St.  Justin  Martyr  and  Eusebius  the 


428        SL  y2Lsii)i  s  belief  as  to  the  Theophanies      [app. 

St..  Aug-ustine,  so  strenuously  maintains,  without  detracting 
from  the  exceeding-  value  of  his  testimony  to  the  great  truth 
which  underlies  his  exposition  :  the  personal  Preexistence  and 
Divinity  of  the  Word.' 

Upon  this  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  interpretation  given 
by  St.  Justin  of  tlie  Old  Testament  narratives  in  question  is 
certainly  not  put  forward  by  him  as  a  '  view '  or  a  '  theory,'  but 
as  a  well-understood  and  generally  acknowledged  belief.  Sup- 
ported as  it  is  beyond  all  gainsaying  by  a  very  extensive  mass  of 
evidence  throughout  the  ante-Nicene  ages,  it  approaches  itself 
much  more  nearly  to  being  a  '  doctrine  of  the  Church '  than  a 
'  view  '  or  a  '  theory ' ;  which  could  have  had  no  weight  in  either 
an  Apology  addressed  to  a  Heathen  Emperor,  or  an  argument  held 
with  a  Jewish  unbeliever.  Indeed  it  is  evident  that  to  have  used 
such  an  argument  on  his  own  sole  authority  (which  would  have 
argued  it  a  novelty,  unknown  to  the  Church)  would  have  been 
certain  to  engender  needless  difficulties  in  the  minds  of  those  he 
desired  to  win  to  the  Faith.  It  could  only  be  of  any  real  force 
under  two  conditions.  i.  That  it  should  be  the  generally 
accepted  belief  of  the  Christian  body  ;  2.  That  to  those  who,  like 
Trypho,  accepted  the  Old  Testament,  it  should  admit  of  being 
shown  to  be,  not  in  solitary  instances  but  throughout  a  whole 
series,  the  most  probable,  natural,  and  consistent  interpretation  of 
the  sacred  narrative  itself.  The  very  fact  that  the  Arians  of  the 
fourth  century  (illogically  enough)  appealed  to  it  proves  its 
acknowledged  currency  throughout  the  Church.  The  earlier 
use,  by  a  few,  and  subsequent  dropping,  of  such  terms  as 
'mingling^  (to  'express  the  closeness  of  union  of  our  Lord's 
Divine  and  Human  natures')  because  afterwards  'abused  by  the 

Historian),  received  the  sanction  of  the  ancient  Church,'  and  that  the  anonynaous 
scholiast's  '  allegation  of  general  catholic  consent '  (to  his  reasons  for  supposing  the 
Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  to  be  the  Archangel  Michael)  is  '  unquestionably  true.' 
What  is  to  be  observed  is,  i.  That  a  variety  of  opinion  as  to  this  one  Manifestation 
— a  variety  evidently  largely  due  to  the  Lxx.  version  (see  §  loi,  p.  207) — does 
not  affect  the  consentient  interpretation  of  the  Theophanies  as  a  whole :  and  2. 
That  the  amount  of  ascertained  adhesion  among  early  Christian  writers  to  Theo- 
doret's  view  is  exceedingly  small,  if  any.  His  own  reputation  for  orthodoxy  was 
too  uncertain  for  his  opinion  to  have  much  weight.  But  see  the  allusions  in  the 
passages  which  follow  to  the  Appearance  to  Joshua. 


NOTE  VII.]     was  not  a  'view'  nor  a  '  theory!  429 

ApolHnarians ' ;  or  as  '  conjunction '  (rruya^eta),  because  abused 
by  the  Nestorians,  are  not  really  parallel  cases ;  and  should  not 
be  seriously  adduced  as  an  argument  for  the  surrender  of  an 
admittedly  wide-spread  view,  in  possession  of  the  ground  from 
the  first  days  of  Christianity,  affecting  large  tracts  of  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  (not  to  say  the  whole  of  them  throughout) 
and  holding  so  cardinal  a  position  in  the  Christian  argument. 
I  add  one  more  passage  from  Dr.  Pusey's  Preface,  bearing  on  this 
subject : — '  The  supposition  that  whereas  in  the  Old  Testament 
God  is  said  to  have  appeared  to  man,  it  was  the  Son  Who  so 
appeared,  lasted  on  to  the  time  of  St.  Augustine.  It  is  used  as 
an  argument  of  the  Divinity  of  the  Son,  since  He  Who  so 
manifests  Himself  is  declared  to  be  God.  The  supposition  itself 
implied  nothing  derogatory.  What  more  natural  than  to  think, 
that  He  Who,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  vouchsafed  to  become  Man, 
did  beforehand  accustom  man  to  the  thought  of  His  appearing  in 
human  form,  by  appearing  in  a  form  which  He  had  created. 
Not  the  supposition  itself  (which  occurs  in  the  most  accurate 
Fathers,  as  St.  Cyprian,  and  even  St.  Athanasius  himself)  but 
statements  connected  with  itj  were  less  carefully  worded  '  (p.  xvi), 
I  append  the  passages  themselves  from  St.  Justin  : — 
T.  Apologi/,  i.  6^,  (Oxf.  Transl.  p.  48).  'But  the  Word  of 
God  is  His  Son,  as  I  have  already  said,  and  He  is  called 
Angel  and  Ajwsile,  for  He  declares  all  that  ought  to  be  known, 
and  is  sent  to  proclaim  what  is  told,  as  indeed  our  Lord 
Himself  said,  He  that  heareth  He,  heareth  him  that  sent  Me. 
And  tliis  will  be  clear  from  the  writings  of  Moses,  in  which  it  is 
said  as  follows  :  And  the  Angel  of  God  spake  unto  Moses  ht  aflame 
of  flre  out  of  the  midst  of  a  hnsh,  and  said,  I  Am  That  I  Am,  the 
God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  the  God 
of  thy  fathers  ;  go  doion  into  Egypt,  and  bring  up  My  people.  And 
what  followed,  you  who  wish  may  learn  from  them  ;  for  it  is  not 
possible  to  write  all  the  events  in  this  book,  but  thus  much  has 
been  said  to  prove  that  Jesus,  the  Christ,  is  the  Son  and  Apostle 
of  Godj  being  formerly  the  Word;  and  at  one  time  appearing  in 
the  form  of  fire,  and  at  another  in  the  image  of  incorporeal 
beings,  but  now  by  the  will  of  God,  being  made  man  for  the 


430  The  Tkeopkanies.  [app. 

human  race,  He  endured  also  to  suffer  all  that  the  devils  caused 
to  be  inflicted  on  Him  by  the  senseless  Jews;  who,  having*  it 
expressly  said  in  the  Mosaic  writings,  And  the  Angel  of  God  spake 
with  Moses  in  a  flame  of  fire  in  the  hush^  and  said,  I  Am  That  I 
Am,  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob  ; 
affirm  that  it  was  the  Father  and  Maker  of  all  things  "Who 
spoke  thus.  Hence  also  the  Spirit  of  prophecy  upbraids  them 
as  follows  :  Israel  hath  not  known  Me,  My  people  hath  not  under- 
stood Me.  And  again,  Jesus,  as  we  have  shown,  when  with 
them,  said,  No  one  knoweth  the  Father  but  the  Son,  nor  the  Son 
but  the  Father,  and  those  to  whom  the  Son  will  reveal  Him,.  The 
Jews  then  always  thinking*  that  the  Father  of  all  thing's  spoke 
to  Moses — He  Who  spoke  to  him  being  the  Son  of  God,  Who  is 
called  both  Angel  and  Apostle — are  rightly  upbraided  both  by 
the  Spirit  of  Prophecy,  and  by  Christ  Himself,  as  knowing 
neither  the  Father  nor  the  Son :  for  they  who  say  that  the  Son 
is  the  Father,  are  proved  neither  to  know  the  Father,  nor  that 
the  Father  of  all  things  has  a  Son,  Who,  being-  moreover  the 
First-born  Word  of  God,  is  also  God,  and  Who  formerly,  throug-h 
the  shape  of  fire,  and  through  an  incorporeal  image,  appeared 
to  Moses,  and  the  other  Prophets ;  but  now,  in  the  time  of 
your  g-overnment,  as  I  said  before,  was  made  man  of  a  Virg-in, 
according"  to  the  counsel  of  the  Father,  for  the  salvation  of  those 
who  believed  on  Him.' 

2.  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  34  (Oxf.  Transl.  p.  no),  '  Where  it  is 
said.  Give  the  King  Thy  judgments,  0  God  [Psalm  Ixxii.  1)  ;  because 
Solomon  was  a  king*,  you  say  that  the  Psalm  was  spoken  of  him, 
whereas  its  words  plainly  show  that  it  was  spoken  of  the  eternal 
King,  i.  e.  Christ ;  for  Christ  is  spoken  of  as  a  King-,  and  a  Priest, 
and  God,  and  Lord,  and  an  Angel,  and  a  Man,  and  Captain  of 
the  host,  and  a  Stone,  and  a  Child  that  is  born,  etc' 

3.  Ibid.  56  (p.  138,  a  full  discussion  of  the  Appearance  to 
Abraham  recorded  in  Genesis  xviii.  and  xix.),  '  Moses,  that  blessed 
and  faithful  servant  of  God,  declares  that  He  Who  was  seen  by 
Abraham  at  the  oak  of  Mamre  was  God,  accompanied  by  two 
angels,  who  were  sent  for  the  condemnation  of  Sodom,  by  Another, 
namely,  by  Him  Who  always  remains  above  the  heavens,  Who 


NOTE  VII.]  S^.  Justin  Martyr.  431 

has  never  been  seen  by  any  man,  and  Who  of  Himself  holds  con- 
verse with  none,  Whom  we  term  the  Creator  of  all  things,  and 
the  Father.  .  .  .  What  I  assert,  I  will  endeavour  to  prove  to 
you  who  understand  the  Scriptures ;  namely,  that  there  both  is, 
and  that  we  read  of,  another  God  and  Lord  under  the  Creator  of 
all  things.  Who  is  also  termed  an  Angel,  in  that  He  bears 
messages  to  men,  whatever  the  Creator,  above  Whom  there  is  no 
other  God,  wills  to  be  borne  to  them.  .  .  .  He  Who  is  said  to 
have  appeared  to  Abraham,  to  Jacob,  and  to  Moses,  and  is  called 
God,  is  other  than  the  Creator  of  all  things ;  other  I  mean  in 
number,  not  in  will ;  for  I  assert  that  He  never  did  (nor  said) 
anything  but  what  the  Creator  of  the  world,  above  Whom  there 
is  no  God,  willed  Him  to  do  or  to  say.' 

4.  Ibid.  68  (p.  144,  On  the  Appearances  to  Jacob),  '  Moses 
has  written  again,  that  He  Who  was  seen  by  the  Patriarchs,  and 
Who  is  called  God,  is  also  termed  Angel  and  Lord,  in  order  that 
you  may  thus  perceive  Him  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Father  of  the 
universe.  [He  quotes  the  passages  from  Genesis  xxxi,  xxxii,  xxxv.] 
....  When  Jacob  fled  from  his  brother  Esau,  the  same  Angel, 
and  God,  and  Lord,  appeared  to  him.  Who  also  appeared  to 
Abraham  in  the  form  of  a  man,  and  afterwards  wrestled  with 
Jacob  in  the  same  form.'    [He  quotes  Gen.  xxviii.  10-20.] 

5.  Ih'id.  59  (p.  146,  On  the  Appearance  in  the  Burning  Bush), 
*  The  same  Angel,  and  God,  and  Lord,  and  Man,  Who  appeared 
as  man  to  Abraham  and  Jacob,  also  appeared  to  and  conversed 
with  Moses  in  a  flame  of  fire  out  of  the  bush.' 

6.  Ih'ul.  60  (p.  146,  In  answer  to  Trypho^s  objection  that  the 
Angel  who  appeared  and  God  who  conversed  with  Moses  at  the 
bush  were  two  distinct  Persons),  '  Even  if  it  be  so,  my  friends, 
that  both  an  Angel  and  God  appeared  together  in  that  vision  to 
Moses,  yet  ....  That  God  Who  said  to  Moses  that  He  was 
the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob, 
will  not  be  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  but  He  Who  was  proved 
to  have  appeared  to  Abraham  and  Jacob,  who  ministers  to  the 
will  of  the  Creator  of  all  things,  and  who  in  the  judgment  of 
Sodom  also  ministered  to  His  counsel.  So  that  even  if  there 
were  two,  as  you  say,  an  Angel  and  God,  yet  no  one  who  has  the 


432  The  Theophanies.  [a pp. 

least  sense  will  venture  to  assert,  that  the  Maker  and  Father  of 
all  things  left  those  realms  which  are  above  the  heavens,  and  ap- 
peared on  a  little  spot  of  earth.  ...  In  that  vision  He  alone, 
who  is  both  called  an  Ang-el  and  is  God  was  seen  by  and  con- 
versed with  Moses.  ...  As  the  Scripture  calls  Him  who  ap- 
peared to  Jacob  in  his  dream  an  Angel,  and  then  declares  that 
that  very  Angel  who  was  then  seen  by  him  in  that  sleep,  said, 
I  am  the  God  who  appeared  to  thee  when  thou  fieddest  from  the  face 
of  thy  brother  Esau  ;  and  we  read  in  the  time  of  Abraham  in  the 
destruction  of  Sodom,  The  Lord  brought  this  judgment //-o^i  the 
Lord  hi  heaven  ;  so  when  the  Scripture  here  says  that  an  Angel 
of  the  Lord  appeared  to  Moses,  and  afterwards  declares  that  He 
is  Lord  and  God,  it  means  the  same  Person  whom  in  many 
passages  it  points  out  to  have  ministered  to  the  will  of  that 
God,  Who  is  above  the  world,  and  to  Whom  there  is  none 
superior.  .  .  .  6i.  He  once  calls  Himself  Captain  of  the  host, 
when  He  appeared  to  Joshua  the  Son  of  Nun  in  the  form  of  man.' 

7.  Ibid.  126  (p.  226),  '  But  if  you  had  known,  Trypho,  who 
He  is  that  is  called  at  one  time  Angel  of  Great  Counsel,  and  a 
Man  by  Ezekiel,  and  like  the  Son  of  Man  by  Daniel,  and  a  little 
Child  by  Isaiah,  and  Christ  and  God  who  is  to  be  worshipped 
by  David,  and  Christ  and  a  Stone  by  many,  and  Wisdom  by 
Solomon,  and  Joseph,  and  Judah,  and  a  Star  by  Moses,  and  the 
East  by  Zechariah,  and  One  who  must  suffer,  and  Jacob,  and 
Israel,  by  Isaiah  again,  and  a  Rod,  and  a  Flower,  and  chief 
Corner-Stone,  and  Son  of  God ;  if  you  had  known  this,  Trypho, 
you  would  not  have  blasphemed  Him  Who  has  already  come, 
and  been  born,  and  sujffered,  and  ascended  into  heaven  ;  who  will 
also  return  again  ;  and  then  your  twelve  tribes  shall  mourn.' 

8.  Ibid.  127  (p.  228),  'I  suppose  that  I  have  sufficiently  shown 
that  when  my  God  says,  God  went  np  from  Abraham,  or.  The  Lord 
spake  to  Moses,  and.  The  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  tower  which 
the  children  of  men  built,  or,  God  closed  the  Ark  of  Noah  from 
without,  you  should  not  suppose  that  the  Unbegotten  God  Him- 
self descended  or  went  up  from  any  place ;  for  the  ineffable 
Father  and  Lord  of  all  things  neither  comes  to  any  place,  nor 
walks,  nor  sleeps,  nor  rises  up,  but  always  remains  in  His  own 


NOTE  VII.]       S/.  Melito,  Bishop  of  Sardis.  433 

place  wherever  it  is,  seeing  quickly  and  hearing  quickly,  not 
with  eyes  or  ears,  but  by  an  ineffable  power — (and  yet  He  beholds 
all  thing's,  and  has  knowledge  of  all  things,  and  none  of  us  is  hid 
from  Him) — nor  is  He  moved  nor  contained  in  any  place,  not 
even  in  the  whole  world,  having  been  even  before  the  world 
was  made ;  how  then  could  He  speak  to  any  one,  or  be  seen 
by  any  one,  or  appear  on  the  smallest  spot  of  earth  ?  when 
the  people  could  not  even  look  on  the  glory  of  him  who  was 
sent  by  Him  in  Sinai ;  and  Moses  himself  was  unable  to  enter 
the  tabernacle,  which  he  had  made,  if  it  were  filled  with  the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  Priest  could  not  endure  to  stand  before 
the  Temple  when  Solomon  brought  the  ark  into  the  house  at 
Jerusalem,  which  he  himself  had  built, — then  neither  Abraham, 
nor  Isaac,  nor  Jacob,  nor  any  other  man,  ever  saw  the  Father 
and  Ineffable  Lord  of  all  things  whatever,  and  of  Christ  Him- 
self; but  Him,  who,  according  to  His  will,  is  both  God  His 
Son,  and  His  Angel  from  ministering  to  His  will ;  who.  He 
determined,  should  be  born  as  man  of  the  Virgin,  and  who  once 
even  became  fire  when  He  conversed  with  Moses  from  the  bush  ; 
for  if  we  do  not  understand  the  Scriptures  thus,  it  will  follow 
that  the  Father  and  Lord  of  all  things  was  not  in  heaven  when 
it  was  said  by  Moses,  And  the  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom,  fire  and 
brimstone  from  the  Lord  out  of  heaven.  And  again  when  it  w^as 
said  by  David,  Lift  up  your  gates,  0  ye  princes,  and  he  ye  lift  up, 
ye  everlasting  doors,  and  the  King  of  Glory  shall  come  in.  And 
again  when  he  says,  The  Lord  saith  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  Thou  on  My 
right  hand,  uniil  I  make  Thine  enemies  Thy  footstool.  And  that 
Christ  being  Lord,  and  being  in  His  own  nature  God  the  Son  of 
God,  and  being  formerly  manifested  with  power  as  man,  and  an 
angel,  and  in  the  form  of  fire  as  in  the  bush,  appeared  also  at 
the  judgment  which  was  brought  upon  Sodom,  has  been  proved 
at  length  by  what  I  have  said.' 

II.  St.  Melito,  Bishop  of  Sardis,  a.d.  168.  He  addressed  an 
Apology  to  the  Emperor  M.  Antoninus.  The  Eev.  W.  H.  Sim- 
cox  in  his  recent  interesting  volume.  The  Beginnings  of  the  Christian 
Church,  ch:ip.  viii,  after  speaking  (p.  389)  of  Saint  Melito  as 
'  undoubtedly  one  of  the  chief  theologians  of  his  age,  and  one  of 

rf 


434  '^^^^  Theophanies.     St.  Mclito.  [app, 

the  most  honoured  persons  in  the  Church,'  presents  us  (from 
Canon  Cureton^s  version,  in  his  Sjncileghim  Synaaim)  with  the 
following"  passage  from  the  extant  fragments  of  his  writings  : — 

'  We  have  made  collections  from  the  Law  and  the  Prophets 
relative  to  those  things  which  have  heen  declared  respecting  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  may  prove  to  your  love,  that  He 
is  perfect  reason,  the  Word  of  God  ;  who  was  begotten  before 
the  light ;  who  was  Creator  together  with  the  Father  ;  who  was 
the  fashioner  of  man  ;  who  was  all  in  all ;  who  among  the 
Patriarchs  was  Patriarch  ;  who  in  the  law  was  the  Law  ;  among 
the  priests  Chief  Priest ;  among-  kings  Governor ;  among  prophets 
the  Prophet ;  among  the  angels  Archangel ;  in  the  voice  the 
Word  ;  among  spirits  Spirit ;  in  the  Father  the  Son  ;  in  God 
God — the  King  for  ever  and  ever.  For  this  is  He  who  was  pilot 
to  Noah ;  who  conducted  Abraham  ;  who  was  bound  with  Isaac, 
who  was  in  exile  with  Jacob,  who  was  sold  with  Joseph,  who  was 
captain  with  Moses,  who  w^as  the  divider  of  the  inheritance  w'ith 
Jesus  the  Son  of  Nun,  who  in  David  and  the  prophets  foretold 
his  own  sufferings,  who  was  incarnate  in  the  Virgin,  who  was 
born  in  Bethlehem,  who  was  wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes  in 
the  manger,  who  was  seen  of  the  shepherds,  who  was  glorified 
of  the  angels,  who  was  worshipped  by  the  Magi,  who  was  pointed 
out  by  John,  who  assembled  the  Apostles,  who  preached  the 
kingdom,  who  healed  the  maimed,  who  gave  light  to  the  blind, 
who  raised  the  dead,  who  appeared  in  the  temple,  who  was  not 
believed  on  by  the  people,  who  was  betrayed  by  Judas,  who  was 
laid  hold  on  by  the  priests,  who  was  condemned  by  Pilate,  who 
was  transfixed  in  the  flesh,  who  was  hanged  upon  the  tree,  who 
was  buried  in  the  earth,  who  rose  from  the  dead,  who  appeared  to 
the  Apostles,  who  ascended  to  heaven,  who  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,  who  is  the  rest  of  those  that  are  departed, 
the  recoverer  of  those  who  were  lost,  the  light  of  those  who  are 
in  darkness,  the  deliverer  of  those  who  are  captives,  the  guide  of 
those  who  have  gone  astray,  the  refuge  of  the  afflicted,  the  bride- 
groom of  the  Church,  the  charioteer  of  the  Cherubim,  the  captain 
of  the  Angels,  God  who  is  of  God,  the  Son  who  is  of  the  Father, 
Jesus  Christ,  the  King  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen.'     '  This,'  adds 


NOTE  VII.]      S^.  TJicophihis.     St.  Ireftaeus,  435 

Mr.  Simcox,  *  is  not  only  orthodox  theology — it  is  second  century 
theology.  The  thought  of  the  Divine  Word  pervading  the  Old 
Testament — appearing  in  the  revelations  made  to  the  Patriarchs 
and  Prophets,  and  foretold  by  their  typical  deeds  and  sufferings, 
as  well  as  by  their  inspired  words — is  one  that  has  never  indeed 
ceased  to  influence  Christian  theology ;  but  it  has  in  later  ages 
been  less  insisted  on,  indeed  less  clearly  conceived.  The  reason 
is  that  the  second  century  was  the  time  when  it  was  necessary  to 
maintain,  against  both  Jews  and  anti- Jewish  heretics,  that  "the 
Old  Testament  is  not  contrary  to  the  New  ;  for  both  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  everlasting  life  is  offered  to  mankind  by 
Christ,  who  is  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  Man,  being 
both  God  and  Man."  As  other  controversies  arose,  the  faith  was 
expressed  in  other  forms ;  but  the  old  form  never  entirely  passed 
out  of  memory.' 

III.  TiiEOPHiLUS.  Bishop  Bull  writes  [Defence,  Nicene  Creed, 
Vik.  I,  ch.ii,  §5),  'Theophilus  of  Antioch  (writing  to  Autolycus, 
Bk.  II)  asserts  that  it  was  the  Sou  of  God,  who  appeared  to 
Adam  shortly  after  the  fall,  and  that  "  assuming  the  person  of 
the  Father  and  Lord  of  all,  He  came  into  Paradise  in  the  person 
of  God,  and  conversed  with  Adam  ; " '  upon  which  passage  the 
■student  should  see  Bishop  BulTs  remarks  in  Bk.  Ill,  ch.vii.  §  i, 
in  which  he  vindicates  Theophilus,  as  in  other  places  he  has  to 
vindicate  others  of  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  against  the  super- 
ficial misunderstanding  of  them  by  the  Jesuit  Petavius. 

IV.  St.  Irenaeus,  born  in  Asia  about  a.d.  140;  a  disciple 
of  St,  Polycarp,  as  he  of  St.  John;  succeeded  Pothinus  who  was 
martyred  a.d.  177,  as  Bishop  of  Lyons  ;  died  about  a.d.  200. 

I.  Against  Heresies,  III.  6  (translated  by  Dr.  Burton,  Testi- 
mo7iies  of  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers  to  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  p.  78), 
'  In  the  overthrowing  of  Sodom,  the  Scripture  says  [Gen.  xix.  24), 
And  the  Lord  rained  npon  Sodom  and  vpon  Gomorrah  fre  and  brim- 
stone from  the  Lord  out  of  heaven.  For  it  signifies  in  this  place 
that  the  Son,  Who  had  also  been  conversing  with  Abraham,  had 
received  })ower  from  the  Father  to  judge  the  people  of  Sodom  on 
account  of  their  iniquity  ....  And  in  another  place  the  Son 
speaks  to  Moses,  saying,  I  am  come  down  to  deliver  this  people 

r  f  2 


436  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

[Exod.  iii.  8),  for  it  is  He  Himself  Who  descended  and  ascended 
for  the  salvation  of  men.  It  is  by  the  Son  therefore  who  is  in 
the  Father,  and  has  the  Father  in  himself,  that  He  Who  is  truly 
God  has  been  manifested  unto  us,  the  Father  bearing  testimony 
to  the  Son,  and  the  Son  announcing  the  Father.' 

3.  Also  III.  xi.  (quoted  by  Dr.  Burton,  p.  84,  as  follows)  : — 
'  The  Word  of  God  conversed  with  the  patriarchs  before  Moses 
in  his  divine  and  glorious  character  \_^K.aTa  to  QeiKov  kol  €vho^ov 
b)ijt,ik€t,  secundum  divinitatem  et  gloriam  colloquebatur,  i.e.  as 
not  being  yet  incarnate]  :  to  those  under  the  law.  He  fulfilled  the 
office  of  a  priest :  and  after  this,  becoming  man,  he  sent  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  into  all  the  earth.' 

3.  Also  Idid.  IV.  xvii.  (I  translate  from  Grynaeus^  Latin  ed. 
after  Erasmus,  Basileae,  i57i)j  'Wherefore  the  Jews  departed 
from  God,  receiving  not  the  Word  of  God,  but  thinking  that 
through  Himself  they  could  know  God  the  Father,  without  the 
Word,  that  is,  without  the  Son  ;  knowing  not  Him  Who  in 
human  form  spake  to  Abraham  and  Aaron,  and  Who  said  to 
Moses,  Seeing,  I  have  seen  the  oppression  of  M?/  people  in  Egypt,  and 
am  come  down  to  deliver  them.  For  this  Son,  Who  is  also  the  Word 
of  God,  from  the  beginning  made  preparation  (praestruebat), 
since  the  Father  needed  no  help  of  angels,  for  His  making  the 
Creation,  and  forming  Man,  for  whose  sake  also  the  Creation 
was  made.' 

4.  Ibid.  IV.  xxiii.  On  '  Had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have 
believed  Me,  for  he  wrote  of  Me.  Yes  ;  for  everywhere  in  his 
writings  is  the  Son  of  God  embedded  [inseminatus,  insown], 
sometimes  indeed  talking  with  Abraham,  sometimes  eating  with 
him,  sometimes  again  bringing  judgment  on  the  people  of  Sodom  : 
or,  again,  when  He  is  seen,  and  guides  Jacob  on  his  journey,  and 
speaks  from  the  Bush  with  Moses.' 

4.  IV.  37.  Speaking  of  the  various  modes  in  which  prophetic 
announcements  were  made  of  the  coming  Saviour  and  His  Work  : 
— '  For  not  by  speech  only  did  the  prophets  prophesy,  but  by 
vision  also,  and  by  their  manner  of  life,  and  by  acts  which 
they  did,  according  as  the  Spirit  suggested.  Accordingly  on 
this  principle  they  saw  God  Who  is  invisible.     As  Isaiah  says. 


NOTE  VII.] 


S^.  Irenaeits. 


437 


/  saw  with  my  eyes  the  Kivg,  the  Lord  of  hosts  ;  announcin;^  that 
man  was  to  see  God  with  his  eyes  and  to  hear  His  Voice.  Where- 
fore also  on  this  principle  they  saw  also  the  Son  of  God  as  man 
conversing-  with  men,  prophesying-  that  which  was  to  be  hereafter 
....  And  the  Word  indeed  spake  with  Moses,  appeai'ing  in  his 
sight,  as  a  man  speaketh  with  his  friend  ....  Now  the  Word 
of  the  Father,  forasmuch  as  He  is  rich  and  manifold,  declareth 
[Himself]  not  in  any  one  single  form,  nor  was  seen  by  those 
that  saw  Him  in  one  character  only,  but  according  to  the  oc- 
casions of  His  dealings ;  as  it  is  written  in  Daniel  that  He  was 
once  seen  by  those  who  were  around  Ananias  and  Azarias  and 
Misael,  standing  by  them  in  the  burning-  fiery  furnace  and  de- 
livering them  from  the  Ihime  ;  and  the  appearance  (he  says)  of  the 
fourth  was  like  the  Son  of  God.^ 


The  student  may  compare  also 

Adv,  Hcer.  I.  iv.  Et  cur 
quura  invisibilis  sit  Deus,  pro- 
phetis  apparuerit  non  in  una 
forma,  sed  alitor  aliis,  intelligas. 

III.  vi.  Deo  Quo  [so.  Filio] 
iterum  dicit,  Deus  Deorum 
Dominus  loquutus  est,-et  vocavit 
terram.  {Ps.  1.  i.)  Quis  Deus? 
De  Quo  dixit :  Deus  manifeste 
veniet,  Deus  noster,  et  non  sile- 
hit  :  hoc  est  Filius,  Qui  secun- 
dum manifestationem  homini- 
bus  advenit,  Qui  dicit  palam : 
Ajyparui  his  qui  Me  non  quae- 
runt. 

III.  xi.  Accipieus  eos  qui  a 
terra  essent  panes,  et  gratias 
agens,  et  iterum  aquam  faciens 
vinum,  saturavit  eos  qui  re- 
cumbebant,  et  potavit  eos  qui 
invitati  erant  ad  nuptias:  os- 
teudens  quoniam  Deus  Qui  fecit 


the  following : — 

terram,  et,  jussit  earn  fructus 
facere,  et  constituit  aquas  et 
edidit  fontes,  Hie  et  benedic- 
tionem  escae  et  gratiam  potus 
in  novissimis  temporibus  per 
Filium  suum  donat  bumano 
generi,  incomprehensibilis  per 
comprehensibilem,  et  invisibilis 
per  visibilem,  cum  extra  Eum 
non  sit,  sed  in  sinu  Patris  ex- 
istat.  Deum  enim,  inquit,  nemo 
vidit  unquani,  nisi  Unigenitus 
Filius  Dei,  Qui  est  in  sinu 
Patris,  Ipse  enarravit.  Patrem 
enim  invisibilem  existentem, 
Ille  Qui  in  sinu  Ejus  est  Filius, 
omuibus  enarrat.  Propter  hoc 
cognoscunt  Eum  hi  quibus  re- 
velaverit  Filius,  et  iterum  Pater 
per  Filium  Fibi  sui  dat 
agnitionem  bis  qui  diligunt 
Eum. 


438 


The  Theophanies. 


[a  PP. 


For  the  explanation  of  the 
language  used  here  see  Lect.  IV. 
§  89,  p.  179- 

III.  xviii.  Unus  igitur  Deus 
Pater,  .  .  .  et  unus  Christus 
Jesus  Dominus  noster  veniens 
per  universara  dispositionem,  et 
omnia  in  Semetipso  recapitu- 
lans.  In  omnibus  autem  est  et 
homo  plasmatio  Dei  :  et  homi- 
uem  ergo  in  Semetipso  recapi- 
tulatus  est  Invisibilis  et  visibilis 
factus,  et  lucomprehensibilis 
factus  comprehensibilis,  et  Im- 
passibilis  passibilis  et  Verbum 
homo,  universa  in  Semetipsum 
recapitulans,  uti  sicut  in  super- 
coelestibus  et  spiritalibus,  et 
invisibilibus  princeps  est  Ver- 
bum Dei,  sic  et  in  visibilibus 
et  corporalibus  principatum 
habeat,  in  Semetipsum  prima- 
tum  assumens,  et  apponens  Se- 
metipsum caput  Ecclesiae,  uni- 
versa attrahat  ad  Semetipsum 
apto  in  tempore. 

III.  XX.  In  jiTincipio  Verbum 
existens  ajmd  Deum,  per  Quem 
omnia  facta  sunt.  Qui  et  semper 
aderat  generi  humano  .  .  .  no- 
vissimis  temporibus  secundum 
praefinitum  tempus  a  Patre 
unitum  suo  plasmati,  &c. 

IV.  xi.  Qui  a  prophetis  ado- 
rabatur  Deus  vivus,  Hie  est 
vivorum  Deus,  et  Verbum  Ejus 
Qui  et  locutus  est  Moysi  [i.e. 
at  the  Bush,  in  the  words,  / 
am  the  God   of  Abraham,   the 


God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of 
Jacoh],  Qui  et  Sadducaeos  re- 
darguit .  . .  Ipse  igitur  Christus 
cum  Patre  vivorum  est  Deus, 
Qui  et  locutus  est  Moysi,  Qui 
et  Patribus  manifestatus  est. 
[Cap.  xii.]  Et  hoc  ipsum  do- 
cens  dicebat  Judaeis,  Abraham 
pater  vester  exultavit  ut  videret 
diem  meum,  et  vidit,  et  gavisus 
est.  .  .  .  Juste  igitur  derelin- 
quens  terrenam  cognationem 
omnem,  sequebatur  Verbum 
Dei,  cum  Verbo  peregrinans,  ut 
cum  Verbo  moraretur. . .  .  [The 
whole  passage  is  beautiful,  but 
too  long  to  transcribe.]  Non  in- 
cognitus  igitur  erat  Dominus 
Abrahae  cujus  diem  concupivit 
videre  :  sed  neque  Pater  Do- 
mini :  didicerat  enim  a  Verbo 
Domini,  et  credidit  Ei.  [Com- 
pare with  this  IV.  xvi.]  Non  tan- 
turn  propter  Abraham  hoc  dixit 
\^Abraham  j)ater  vester  exulta- 
vit, &c.,],  sed  ut  ostenderet  quo- 
niam  omnes  qui  ab  initio  cog- 
nitum  habuerunt  Dominum  et 
adventum  Christ!  prophetave- 
runt,  revelationem  acceperunt 
ab  Ipso  Filio,  Qui  et  novissimis 
temporibus  visibilis  et  passibilis 
factus  est. 

IV.  xiv.  Arguing  the  pre- 
existence  of  Christ,  he  points 
out  the  error  of  supposing  that 
only  *  a  temporibus  Tiberii 
Caesaris  commemoratus  est 
Pater  providere  hominibus,  et 


NOTE  VII.] 


S/.  Irenaeus. 


439 


non  semper  Verbum  Ejus  una 
cum  plasmate  fuisse  ostende- 
batur.' 

Ibid.  Bonum  autem  placitum 
Patris  Filius  perficit :  mittit 
enim  Pater,  niittitur  autcm  et 
venit  Filius.  Et  Patrcm  quldcin 
Invisibilem  et  Interminabilem, 
quantum  ad  nos  est,  cognoscit 
suum  Ipsius  Verbum,  et  cum 
sit  inenarrabilis  Ipse  enarrat 
Eum  nobis.  Rursum  autem 
Verbum  suum  solus  cognoscit 
Pater  :  utraque  autem  haec  et 
sic  se  habere  manifestavit  Do- 
minus,  et  propter  hoc  Filius 
revelat  agnitionem  Patris  per 
suam  manifestationem.  Agiiitio 
enim  Patris  est,  Filii  manifes- 
tatio.  Omnia  per  Verbum  ma- 
nifestantur. 

Ihid.  Per  legem  et  prophetas 
similiter  Verbum  et  Semetip- 
sum  et  Patrem  praedicabat.  Et 
audivit  quidem  universus  popu- 
lus  bimiliter  :  non  similiter  au- 
tem omncs  crediderunt :  et  per 
Ipsum  Verbum  visibilem  et  pal- 
pabilem  factum  Pater  ostende- 
batur,ctiamsi  non  oranes  simili- 
ter credebant  Ei :  sed  omnes 
vidci-unt  in  Filio  Patrcm  :  invi- 
sibile  etenim  Filii  Pater,  visibile 
autem  Patris  Filius.  .  .  .  Omnia 
autem  Filius  adrainistrans  Pa- 
tri,  perficit  ab  initio  usque  ad 
finem,  et  sine  Illo  nemo  potest 
cognoscere  Deum.  Agiiitio 
enim  Patris  Filius,  aguitio  au- 


tem Filii  in  Patre  et  per  Filium 
revelata.  Et  propter  hoc  Do- 
minus  dicebat.  Nemo  cognoscit 
Filium  nisi  Pater,  neque  Patrem 
nisi  Filius,  et  quibuscunque 
Filius  revelaverit.  Eevelaverit 
enim,  non  solum  in  futurum 
dictum  est,  quasi  tunc  inciperet 
Verbum  manifestare  Patrem, 
cum  de  Maria  natus,  sed  com- 
muniter  per  totum  tempus  posi- 
tum  est.  Ab  initio  enim  as- 
sistens  Filius  suo  plasmati,  re- 
velat omnibus  Patrem,  quibus 
vult,  et  quando  vult,  et  quem- 
admodum  vult  Pater. 

IV.  xxxvii.  Prophetae  ab 
eodem  Verbo  propheticum  ac- 
cipieutes  charisma,  praedicave- 
runt  Ejus  secundum  carnem 
adventum,  per  quern  commixtio 
et  communio  Dei  et  hominis 
secundum  placitum  Patris  facta 
est,  ab  initio  praenunciante 
Verbo  Dei,  quoniam  videbitur 
Deus  ab  hominibus,  et  conver- 
sabitur  cum  eis  super  terram, 
et  colloquetur  et  adfuturus  est, 
id  est  ab  universo  suo  plasmate, 
salvans  illud. .  .  .  Enarrat  ergo 
Filius  ab  initio  Patris,  quippe 
Qui  ab  initio  est  cum  Patre, 
Qui  et  visiones  propheticas,  et 
divisiones  charismatum,  et  min- 
isteria  sua,  et  Patris  glorifica- 
tionem  consequenter  et  compo- 
site ostenderit  humane  generi 
apto  tempore  ad  utilitatem  .  .  . 
et  propterea  Verbum  dispensa- 


440 


The  Theophanies. 


[app. 


turn  Paternae  gratiae  factus  est 
ad  utilitateni  honiiiium,  propter 
quos  fecit  tantas  dispositiones, 
hominibus  quidem  ostendens 
Deum,  Deum  autem  exhibens 
hominem :  et  invisibilitatem 
quidem  Patris  custodieus,  ne 
quando  homo  fieret  contemptor 
Dei,  et  ut  semper  haberet  ad 
quod  proficeret :  visibilem  au- 
tem rursus  hominibus  per  niul- 
tas  dispositiones  ostendens 
Deum,  ne  in  totum  deficiens 
homo  cessaret  esse.  Gloria 
enim  Dei  vivens  homo.  Vita 
autem  hominis  visio  Dei. 

IV.  xxxviii.  Pachel  prae- 
figurabat  Ecclesiam,  propter 
quam  sustinuit  Christus  :  Qui 
tunc  quidem  patriarchas  suos 
et  prophetas  praefigurans  et 
praenuntians,  praeexercens  su- 
am  partem  dispositionibus  Dei, 
et  assuescens  haereditatem 
suam  obedlre  Deo,  et  peregri- 
nari  in  saeculo,  et  sequi  Verbum 
Ejus,  et  pr-aefigurare  futura. 
Nihil  enim  vacuum,  neque  sine 
signo  apud  Eum  .  .  .  Non  enim 
propter  eos  solos  qui  tempori- 
bus  Tiberii  Caesaris  cretlider- 
unt  Ei  venit  Christus,  nee 
propter  eos  solos,  qui  nunc  sunt 
homines,      providentiam     fecit 


Pater :  sed  propter  oranes 
omnino  homines,  qui  ab  initio 
secundum  virtutem  suam  in 
sua  generatione  et  timuerunt 
et  dilexerunt  Deum,  et  juste  et 
pie  conversati  sunt  erga  proxi- 
mos,  et  concupierunt  videre 
Christum,  et  audire  vocem 
Ejus.  Quapropter  omnes  hu- 
jusmodi  in  secundo  adventu, 
primb  de  somno  excitabit,  et 
eriget  tarn  eos,  quam  reliquos 
qui  judicabuntur  et  constituet 
in  regnum  suum.  Quoniam 
quidem  unus  Deus,  Qui  patri- 
archas quidem  direxit  in  dis- 
positiones suas. 

V.  i.  Showing  the  literal 
reality  of  the  Incai'nation 
through  Mary,  as  compared 
with  previous  temporary  ap- 
pearances : — 

Praediximus  autem  quoniam 
Abraham  et  reliqui  prophetae, 
prophetic^  videbaut  Eum,  id 
quod  futurum  erat  per  visionem 
prophetantes.  Si  igitur  et  nunc 
talis  appaniit,  non  existens 
quod  videbatur,  quaedara  pro- 
phetica  visio  facta  est  hominibus, 
et  oportet  alium  expectare  ad- 
ventum  Eius,  in  quo  talis  erit, 
qualis  nunc  visus  est  pi'ophe- 
tic6. 


V.  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  President  of  the  Catechetical 
School  there,  about  a.d.  190,  where  Origen  was  among"  his  pupils. 

Throughout  his  treatise  entitled  Faedagogus  he  speaks  of 
Christ  by  that  title,  as  the  '  Educator,'  or  '  Instructor ' ;  as  in 
his  Exhortation  to  the  Gentiles,  chap,  i.,  he  speaks  of  the  ap- 


NOTE  VII.]         Si.  Clement  of  Alexandria.  441 

pearing-,  in  His  Incarnation,  of  '  the  pre-existing-  Saviour,'  tlie 
'Word,  Who  was  with  God,'  the  '  AtSao-KaAos,  by  Whom  all 
thing's  were  made.'  Perhaps  he  got  the  thought  from  the  LXX. 
of  Hosea  v.  2,  'Eyo)  86  TratSeurrjs  Vjuwy,  a  passage  which  [Paed. 
I.  7.)  he  says  'the  Word  spake  respecting  Himself.' 

1.  The  Instructor,  Bk.  I,  ch.  7  (I  adopt  the  Rev.  W.  Wilson's 
Translation,  in  Clark's  Ante-Nicene  Library),  '  Our  Instructor  is 
the  holy  God  Jesus,  the  Word,  who  is  the  guide  of  all  humanity. 
The  living  God  Himself  is  our  Instructor.     Somewhere  in  song 
the  Holy  Spirit   says  with    regard    to  Him,  [he  quotes  Bent. 
xxxii.  10-12]  ....  Again,  when  He  speaks  in  His  own  person, 
He  confesses  Himself  to  be  the  Instructor :  /  am  the  Lord  thy 
God,  who  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  [Exod.  xx.  i)  .  .  .  . 
This  was  He  who  appeared  to  Abraham,  and  said  to  him,  /  am 
thy  God,  be  accepted  before  7ue  [Gen.  xvii.  i,  2) ;    and  in  a  way 
most  befitting  an  instructor,   forms  him  into  a  faithful  child, 
saying.  And  be  blameless ;  and  I  will  make  my  covenant  tjetween 
me  and  thee,  and  thy  seed.     There  is  the  communication  of  \k\Q 
Instructor's  fi'iendship.      And   He  most  manifestly  appears  as 
Jacob's  instructor.     He  says  accordingly  to  him,  Lo,  I  am  with 
thee,  to  keep  thee  in  all  the  way  in  which  thou  shall  go  ;  and  I  will 
bring  thee  back  into  this  land ;  for  I  will  not  leave  thee  till  I  do 
what  I  have  told  thee.     He  is  said  too  to  have  wrestled  with 
him.    And  Jacob  was  left  alone  ;  and  there  wrestled  tvith  him  a  man 
(the  Instructor)  till  the  morning.     This  was  the  man  who  led, 
and  brought,  and  wrestled  with,  and  anointed  the  athlete  Jacob 
against  evil.     Now  that  the  Word  was  at  once  Jacob's  trainer  and 
the   Instructor  of  humanity  [appears  from  this] — He  asked,  it 
is  said,  His  name,  and  said  to  him.  Tell  me  what  is  thy  nam.e  ? 
And  He  said,   Why  is  it  that  thou  askest  my  name  ?     For  He 
reserved  the  new  name  for  the  new  people — the  babe  ;  and  was 
as  yet  unnamed,  the  Lord  God  not  having  yet  become  man. 
Yet  Jacob  called  the  name  of  the  place,  "  Face  of  God."     For  1 
have  seen,  he    says,  God  face  to  face,  and   my  life  is  preserved 
[Gen.  xxxii.  30).     The  face  of  God  is  the  Word  by  whom  God 
is  manifested  and  made  known.     Then  also  was  he  named  Israel, 
because  he  saw  God  the  Lord.      It  was  God,  the  Word,  the 


442  The  Thcophanies.  [app. 

Instructor,  who  said  to  him  again  afterwards,  Fear  not  to  go 
doivn  mto  Egypt  ....  It  is  He  also  who  teaches  Moses  to  act  as 
instructor  ....  It  was  really  the  Lord  that  was  the  instructor 
of  the  ancient  people  by  Moses;  but  He  is  the  instructor  of  the 
new  people  by  Himself,  face  to  face.  For,  Behold,  He  says  to 
Moses,  mi/  angel  shall  go  before  thee,  representing-  the  evangelical 
and  commanding  power  of  the  Word,  but  guarding  the  Lord's 
prerogative.  In  the  day  m  which  I  will  visit  them,  He  says,  / 
tvill  bring  their  sins  on  them  ;  that  is.  On  the  day  on  which  I  will 
sit  as  judge  I  will  render  the  recompense  of  their  sins  (Exod. 
xxxii.  ^^,  34).  For  the  same  who  is  Instructor  is  judge,  and 
judges  those  who  disobey  Him ;  and  the  loving  Word  will  not 
pass  over  their  transgression  in  silence  ....  Formerly  the  older 
people  had  an  old  covenant^  and  the  law  disciplined  the  people 
with  fear,  and  the  Word  was  an  angel;  but  to  the  fresh  and 
new  people  has  also  been  given  a  new  covenant,  and  the  Word 
has  appeared,  and  fear  is  turned  to  love,  and  that  mystic  angel  is 
born — Jesus  ....  The  law  is  ancient  grace  given  through  Moses 
by  the  Word.  Wherefore  also  the  Scripture  says,  The  Law  was 
given  through  Moses  [John  i.  17)^  not  by  Moses,  but  by  the  Word, 
and  through  Moses  His  servant.  Wherefore  it  was  only  tem- 
porary; but  eternal  grace  and  truth  were  by  Jesus  Christ. 
Mark  the  expressions  of  Scripture :  of  the  law  only  is  it  said 
was  given ;  but  truth  being  the  grace  of  the  Father,  is  the 
eternal  work  of  the  Word  ;  and  it  is  not  said  to  be  given,  but  to 
he  by  Jesus,  without  whom  nothing  was  {John  i.  3).  Presently, 
therefore,  Moses  prophetically,  giving  place  to  the  perfect  In- 
structor, the  Word,  predicts  both  the  name  and  office  of  Instructor, 
and  committing  to  the  people  the  commands  of  obedience,  sets 
before  them  the  Instructor.  A  prophet,  says  he,  like  me  shall 
God  raise  up  to  you  of  your  brethren  {Dent,  xviii.  15),  pointing  out 
Jesus  the  Son  of  God.'  On  this  passage  the  student  may  also 
refer  to  Burton,  Testim.  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  §§  78,  79. 

2.  Ibid.  I.  ch.  II,  'Of  old  He  [the  Word]  instructed  by 
Moses,  and  then  by  the  prophets  ....  One  alone,  true,  good, 
just,  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  the  Father,  His  Son  Jesus, 
the  Word  of  God,  is  our  Instructor ;  to  whom  God  hath  entrusted 


NOTE  VII.]        St,  Cle77ie)it  of  Alexandria.  44? 

us,  as  an  affectionate  father  commits  his  children  to  a  worthy 
tutor,  expressly  charging-  us.  This  is  my  beloved  Son:  hear  Him 
{Matt.  xvii.  5).' 

3.  Exiiortation  to  tJie  Heathen,  chap,  i,  'The  Saviour,  who 
existed  before,  has  in  recent  days  appeared  .  .  .  The  Word,  who 
"  was  with  God,"  and  by  whom  all  things  were  created,  has 
appeared  as  our  Teacher;  that  as  God  He  might  afterwards 
conduct  us  to  the  life  which  never  ends.  He  did  not  now  pity 
us  for  the  first  time  for  our  error ;  but  He  pitied  us  from  the 
first,  from  the  beginning  ....  Our  ally  and  helper  is  one  and 
the  same — the  Lord,  who  from  the  beginning  gave  revelations 
by  prophecy,  but  now  plainly  calls  to  salvation  ....  Let  us  run 
to  the  Lord  the  Saviour,  who  now  exhorts  to  salvation,  as  He 
has  ever  done,  as  He  did  by  signs  and  wonders  in  Egypt  and  the 
desert,  both  by  the  bush  and  the  cloud,  which,  through  the 
favour  of  divine  love,  attended  the  Hebrews  like  an  handmaid. 
By  the  fear  which  these  inspired  He  addressed  the  hard-hearted  ; 
while  by  Moses,  learned  in  all  wisdom,  and  Isaiah,  lover  of 
truth,  and  the  whole  prophetic  choir,  in  a  way  appealing  more 
to  reason.  He  turns  to  the  Word  those  who  have  ears  to  hear. 
Sometimes  He  upbraids,  and  sometimes  He  threatens  .  .  .  The 
Saviour  has  many  tones  of  voice,  and  many  methods  for  the 
salvation  of  men ;  by  threatening  He  admonishes,  by  upbraiding 
He  converts,  by  bewailing  He  pities,  by  the  voice  of  song  He 
cheers.  He  spake  by  the  burning  bush,  for  the  men  of  that  day 
needed  signs  and  wonders.  He  awed  men  by  the  fire  when  He 
made  flame  to  burst  from  the  pillar  of  cloud — a  token  at  once  of 
grace  and  fear :  if  you  obey,  there  is  the  light ;  if  you  disobey, 
there  is  the  fire  ;  but  since  humanity  is  nobler  than  the  pillar  or 
the  bush,  after  them  the  prophets  uttered  their  voice, — the  Lord 
Himself  speaking  in  Isaiah,  in  Elias, — speaking  Himself  by  the 
mouth  of  the  prophets.  But  if  thou  dost  not  believe  the  pro- 
phets, but  supposest  both  the  men  and  the  fire  a  myth,  the  Lord 
Himself  shall  speak  to  thee.  Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God., 
thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,  but  hnmbled  Himself 
{Fhil.  ii.  6),  He,  the  merciful  God,  exerting  Himself  to  save 
man.' 


444  ^>^^  Theophanies.  [app. 

4.  I  take  the  next  passag-e  from  Burton's  Ante-'Nkene  Fathers, 
together  with  his  comment  upon  it.  '  Upon  the  words  (P*.  xxiv. 
6 ;  LXX.  xxiii.  6),  This  is  the  generation  of  them  that  seek  /dm, 
(hat  seek  the  face  of  the  God  of  Jacob,  Clement  {Strom,  vii,  6) 
makes  the  following  observations :  "  The  prophet  has  given  a  brief 
description  of  the  man  of  knowledge  {rov  yvcoa-TLKov).  David  has 
shown  to  us  cursorily,  as  it  appears,  that  the  Saviour  is  God, 
calling  him  the  face  of  the  God  of  Jacol,  who  has  given  us  glad 
tidings  and  instructions  concerning  the  Spirit :  wherefore  also 
the  Apostle  {Heh.  i.  3)  has  called  the  Son  the  express  image  of  his 
Father  s  glory,  who  hath  taught  us  the  truth  concerning  God, 
and  expressly  declared  that  God  the  Father  is  one  and  alone  the 
Almighty,  lohom  no  man  hioweth,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom  the 
Son  will  reveal  Him  [Matt.  xi.  27)."  This  passage  (says  Burton) 
becomes  more  intelligible,  when  we  remember  that  Clement  calls 
Christ  the  face  of  the  Father.  It  was  his  opinion,  as  it  was  of 
all  the  early  Fathers,  that  whenever  God  is  said  in  the  Old 
Testament  to  lie  seen,  as  He  was  by  Jacob  [Gen.  xxxii.  30)  and 
by  Moses  [Fxod.  xxxiii.  11),  face  to  face,  it  was  not  God  the 
Father,  but  God  the  Son,  who  appeared ;  and  thus  they  called 
the  Son  the  face  of  the  Father,  or  that  form  under  which  He 
chose  to  reveal  Himself  to  man.  Thus  in  the  passage  already 
quoted  (Burton^  p.  153),  he  says,  "The  face  of  God  is  the  Word, 
by  whom  God  is  made  manifest  and  known  ; "  and  in  another 
place  [Strom,  v.  6),  "The  Son  is  called  the  face  of  the  Father,  the 
Word  who  took  our  flesh,  and  revealed  that  which  belongs  pecu- 
liarly to  the  Father,"  ....  Clement  therefore  conceived  David  to 
have  intended  Christ,  when  he  speaks  of  the  face  of  the  God  of 
Jacob.'     (Burton,  §  94,  p.  176). 

VI.  Tertullian,  born  at  Carthage  about  a.d.  150,  died  about 
A.D.  230. 

I.  Le  Praescript.  Haeret.  13.  (The  passage,  which  is  a  sort  of 
Creed,  is  given  by  Dr.  Burton,  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  p.  236.) 
'  Now  the  Bule  of  Faith  is — That  there  is  absolutely  One  God, 
and  He  none  other  than  the  Creator  of  the  world.  Who  produced 
all  things  out  of  nothing  through  His  Word  sent  forth  before  all 
things :  That  this  Word  is  called  His  Son,  in  the  Name  of  God 


NOTE  VII.]  Tertullian.  445 

variously  seen  by  the  Patriarchs,  ever  heard  in  the  Prophets, 
finally  by  the  Spirit  and  Power  of  God  the  Father  brought  into 
the  Virgin  Mary,  made  flesh  in  her  womb,  and  being  born  of 
her  came  forth  Jesus  Christ ;  That  He  thereafter  preached  the 
New  Law  and  the  new  promise  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
wrought  miracles,  was  nailed  to  the  Cross,  rose  again  the  third 
day,  and,  being  carried  into  the  Heavens,  sitteth  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father  ;  That  He  sent  in  His  stead  the  Power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  to  guide  believers  ;  That  He  will  come  with  glory  to 
take  the  holy  to  the  enjoyment  of  eternal  life  and  heavenly  pro- 
mises, and  to  doom  the  unholy  to  perpetual  fire  after  the  raising 
up  again  of  either  sort  together  with  the  restitution  of  their 
flesh.  This  Rule  instituted,  as  shall  be  shown,  by  Christ,  admits 
among  us  no  questions,  save  those  which  heresies  bring  in,  and 
which  make  men  heretics.' 

3.  Jgainst  Marcion^  II.  2'J.  A  very  remarkable  passage,  given 
at  length  by  Dr.  Burton  (^iMd.  p.  220),  from  whose  rendering 
(with  the  necessary  correction  of  some  inaccuracies)  I  give  the 
following : — '  God  could  not  have  entered  upon  converse  with 
man  unless  He  had  assumed  both  the  feelings  and  afiections  of 
man,  by  which  He  could  temper  that  greatness  of  His  Majesty, 
which  is  intolerable  to  human  weakness,  by  a  humility  which 
is  indeed  unworthy  of  Him,  but  which  is  necessary  for  man's 
sake,  and  so  far  therefore  worthy  of  God,  because  nothing  is  so 
worthy  of  God  as  the  salvation  of  man.  .  .  .  Nay,  we  even 
declare  that  Christ  always  acted  in  the  name  of  God  the  Father ; 
that  it  was  He  "Who  from  the  beginning  held  converse  and  inter- 
course (conversatum — congressum)  with  patriarchs  and  prophets, 
the  Son  of  the  Creator,  His  Word,  Whom  by  production  from 
His  own  very  Self  He  made  His  Son,  and  thenceforward  set 
Him  over  His  own  whole  dispensation  and  will,  making  him  a 
little  loioer  than  the  angels,  as  it  is  written  in  David  [Tertullian 
evidently  refers  here  to  the  Theophanies  in  human  form]  :  by  which 
lowering  He  was  also  appointed  by  the  Father  unto  those  things 
whicli  you  object  lo  as  human,  that  He  might  learn  thoroughly 
(ediscens),  even  already  from  the  beginning,  that  human  nature 
which  in  the  end  He  was  to  be.     It  is  He  Who  came  down  ; 


446  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

He  Who  inquires ;  He  Who  requests ;  He  Who  swears.  But 
that  the  Father  is  seen  by  no  man  even  the  common  Gospel  will 
testify,  when  Christ  says,  None  knowetk  the  Father  save  the  Son. 
For  He  Himself  in  the  Old  Testament  had  declai-ed  None  shall 
see  God  and  live,  clearly  marking-  the  Father  as  invisible,  in 
Whose  authority  and  Name  He  Himself  Who  was  seen,  the 
Son  of  God,  was  God.  .  .  .  Therefore,  whatever  j'ou  require  as 
worthy  of  God  will  be  found  in  the  Father,  Who  is  invisible  and 
unapproachable  and  unmoved,  and,  so  to  say,  a  philosopher's 
God  [i.  e.  as  God  might  be  thought  of  by  unassisted  human 
reason].  But  whatever  you  object  to  as  unworthy  will  be  found 
in  the  Son,  Who  who  was  both  seen,  and  heard,  and  conversed 
with,  the  witness  and  minister  of  the  Father,  uniting  in  Himself 
man  and  God :  In  His  mighty  acts,  God,  in  His  weakness,  man  ; 
so  that  He  bestows  upon  man  what  He  takes  from  God  ;  in  fact, 
the  whole  of  my  God,  in  your  estimation  a  humiliation,  is  a 
Sacrament  of  man^s  Salvation.  Yes,  God  was  wont  to  associate 
with  man,  that  man  might  be  tavight  to  act  divinely.  God 
acted  on  a  level  with  man,  that  man  might  be  able  to  act  on  a 
level  with  God.  GoJ  was  found  little,  that  man  might  become 
as  great  as  possible.  Thou  that  disdainest  a  God  like  that,  I 
know  not  whether  thou  canst  with  faith  believe  that  God  was 
crucified.'  It  is  almost  impossible  to  reproduce  the  forcible 
grandeur  of  the  original ;  '  Totum  denique  Dei  mei,  penes  vos 
dedecus,  sacramentum  est  humanae  salutis.  Conversabatur  Deus, 
ut  homo  divina  agere  doceretur;  ex  aequo  agebat  Deus  cum 
homine,  ut  homo  ex  aequo  agere  cum  Deo  posset ;  Deus  pusillus 
inventus  est,  ut  homo  maximus  fieret.  Qui  talem  Deum  dedig- 
naris,  nescio  an  ex  fide  credas  Deum  crueifixum.' 

3.  Against  Marcion,  III.  9:  'Wherefore  even  He  Himself 
(Christ),  together  with  angels,  appeared  then  before  Abraham 
in  true  flesh  indeed,  though  not  as  yet  born,  because  not  as  yet 
needing  to  die,  but  learning  already  to  converse  among  men.' 

4.  Ibid.  IV.  10  :  'In  like  manner  also  acknowledge  Christ  as 
the  forgiver  of  sins  in  the  pages  of  the  same  prophet  (Isaiah, 
from  whom  he  quotes  liii.  12  and  i.  18),  and  Micah  also  (he 
quotes  vii.  18).     Nay,  even  had  nothing  of  this  kind  been  fore- 


NOTE  vil]  Tertullian.  447 

told  with  reference  to  Christ,  I  had  still  had  instances  of  this  mer- 
ciful kindness  on  the  part  of  the  Creator,  assuring-  me  of  the 
dispositions  of  the  Father  in  the  Son  also.  I  see  the  Ninevites 
obtained  pardon  of  their  sins  from  the  Creator,  not  to  say  that 
it  was  even  then  from  Christy  since  from  the  heg-inning-  He  has 
acted  in  the  Father's  Name.  .  .  .  He  was  seen  by  the  Xing'  of 
Babylon  in  the  furnace,  together  with  His  martyrs,  a,  fourth,  like 
unto  a  son  of  man.  The  very  same  was  revealed  to  Daniel 
expressly  as  the  Son  of  Man  coming  with  the  clouds  of  heaven 
as  Judge,  as  the  Scripture  also  declares.' 

5.  Concerning  the  Flesh  of  Christ,  14.  Arguing  against  those 
who  said  that  Christ  bore  the  nature  of  an  angel,  that  there  was 
an  angel  in  Christ,  he  says : — '  He  is  indeed  called  the  Angel  of 
great  Counsel,  i.  e.  the  messenger  or  announcer,  by  an  expression 
which  denotes  not  His  nature  but  His  office  ;  for  He  was  to 
announce  to  the  world  the  great  thought  of  the  Father,  namely, 
concerning  the  restitution  of  man.  Yet  He  is  not  on  that  ac- 
count to  be  understood  to  be  an  angel  in  the  same  sense  as  some 
Gabriel  or  Michael.  For  the  Son  also  is  sent  by  the  lord  of  the 
vineyard  to  the  husbandmen,  as  well  as  the  servants,  to  ask  of 
the  fruits ;  yet  not  on  that  account  must  the  Son  be  reckoned 
one  of  the  servants  because  He  afterwards  took  up  the  duty  of 
the  servants.  Wherefore  I  could  easier  say,  if  it  be  so,  that  the 
Son  Himself  is  the  Angel,  i.  e.  the  Messenger  of  the  Father, 
than  that  there  was  an  angel  in  the  Son.  ,  .  .  What  more  need 
be  said  ?  As  to  all  this  hear  Isaiah  crying  out  (Ixiii.  9),  No 
angel,  nor  ambassador  (legatus),  but  the  Lord  Himself  saved  them.^ 
On  this  Dr.  Burton  remarks,  p.  209  :  '  All  this  reasoning  about 
angels  seems  to  be  introduced  because  Tertullian  was  aware  of 
Jesus  being  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament  as  the  Angel  or 
Messenger  of  the  Covenant.  To  those  who  believe,  as  all  the 
early  Fathers  believed,  that  the  Angel  of  the  covenant  was  no 
other  than  God  Himself,  this  will  be  sufficient  to  prove  that 
Tertullian  acknowledged  the  divinity  of  Christ.' 

6.  Against  Fraxeas  (who  taught  the  Sabellian  or  '  Patri- 
passian  '  heresy,  which  '  confounded  the  Persons,'  i.  e.  denied  the 
Personal  distinctions,  within  the  One  Godhead),  §  13  :    '  Never 


448  The  Thcophanies.  [app. 

do  we  utter  from  our  lips  the  expression  "  Two  Gods,"  or  "  Two 
Lords ; "  not  as  though  the  Father  were  not  God,  and  the  Son 
God,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  God,  and  each  one  God,  but  formerly 
[i.e.  in  the  O.  T.  Scriptures]  two  were  spoken  of  as  God  and  Lord, 
in  order  that,  when  Christ  came,  He  mig-ht  both  be  acknowledged 
God  and  styled  Lord,  because  the  Son  of  the  God  and  Lord.  For 
if  but  One  Person,  whether  of  God  or  Lord,  were  found  in  the 
Scriptures,  then  certainly  Christ  were  not  admitted  to  the  name 
of  God  and  Lord.  For,  in  that  case,  none  other  were  spoken  of 
save  One  God  and  One  Lord,  and  the  result  would  be  that  the 
Father  Himself  would  seem  to  have  come  down,  because  but  one 
God  and  one  Lord  was  read  of;  and  that  whole  Economy  of  His 
would  be  overshadowed  which  has  been  with  forethought  pro- 
vided and  arranged  as  a  groundwork  for  our  faith.  But  since 
Christ  came  and  was  known  by  us,  that  He  it  was  who  formerly 
had  been  reckoned  distinct  as  the  second  from  the  Father,  and 
third  together  with  the  Spirit ;  and  since  now  the  Father  is 
through  Him  more  fully  revealed  ;  now  indeed  the  name  of  God 
and  Lord  is  fully  brought  into  openness.  ,  .  .  Accordingly  I  would 
absolutely  not  speak  of  "  Gods  "  or  "  Lords,"  but  would  follow  the 
Apostle ;  i.  e.  if  both  the  Father  and  the  Son  must  be  spoken  of 
together,  I  would  style  the  Father  God,  and  would  speak  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  Lord.  But  speaking  of  Christ  alone  I  shall  be 
able  to  speak  of  Him  as  God,  as  doth  the  same  Apostle  (Rom. 
ix.  5)  Of  wliom  CJrrist  came^  who  is  (he  says)  God  over  all,  hlessecl 
for  ever.  For  speaking  separately  of  the  sun's  ray,  I  should  call 
it  "  the  sun ;"  but  speaking  of  the  sun,  whose  ray  it  is,  I  should 
not  in  the  same  breath  call  the  ray  too  the  sun.  For  although 
I  should  not  make  two  suns,  yet  I  should  speak  distinctly  of  the 
sun  and  its  ray  as  two  things,  two  forms  of  one  and  the  same 
undivided  substance,  and  so  of  God  and  His  Word,  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son.' 

Ibid.  §  14:  'And  further  that  principle  which  declares  that  God 
is  invisible  supports  us  who  insist  on  two  Persons,  the  Father  and 
the  Son.  For  when  Moses  in  Egypt  longed  for  the  sight  of  the 
Lord,  saying,  If  therefore  I  have  found  favour  in  Thy  sight,  mani- 
fest Thyself  to  me,  that  I  may  see  Thee  and  know  Thee  ;  Thou  canst, 


NOTE  viT.]  Tertullian.  449 

not,  lie  said,  see  Mi/  Face  ;  for  there  shall  no  man  see  My  Face  and 
live,  that  is,  He  shall  die  that  hath  seen  Me.  For  we  find  that  both 
God  was  seen  by  many,  and  yet  none  of  those  who  saw  Him  died ; 
that  God  was  indeed  seen,  according'  to  the  capacity  of  man,  not 
according  to  the  fulness  of  His  Divinity.  For  the  patriarchs  are 
recorded  to  have  seen  God,  Abraham  and  Jacob,  for  example, 
and  the  prophets  also,  as  Isaiah,  as  Ezekiel,  and  yet  died  not.  . .  . 
Now  therefore  He  Who  was  seen  must  be  another,  because  He 
Who  was  seen  cannot  also  be  described  as  invisible."  In  ch.  15  he 
proceeds  to  argue  from  the  same  distinction  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, quoting-  St.  John's  saying"  (i.  18)  No  man  hath  seen  God 
at  any  time,  and  St.  Paul's  (1.  Tim.  iv.  16)  JFhom  no  man  hath 
seen,  nor  can  see,  and  showing  that  it  is  always  and  only  the  Son 
Who  is  seen,  whether  before  or  after  the  Incarnation.  '  If  these 
thing's  are  so,  it  is  evident  that  He  was  ever  seen  from  the 
beginning-,  Who  was  also  seen  in  the  end  ;  and  that  He  was  not 
seen  in  the  end.  Who  never  was  seen  from  the  beginning,  and 
so  that  there  are  Two,  the  Seen  and  the  Unseen.  It  was  there- 
fore always  the  Son  that  was  seen,  always  the  Son  that  con- 
versed, always  the  Son  that  wrought,  by  the  authority  of 
the  Father  and  by  His  Will,  for  The  Son  can  do  nothing  of 
Himself  hut  what  He  seeth  the  Father  doing,  doing,  that  is  in 
Mind  [sensu,  which  Tertullian  and  the  Latin  of  Irenaeus  use 
as  equivalent  to  the  Greek  vov^\  For  the  Father  acts  in 
Mind,  but  the  Son,  seeing  it,  carries  through  {perfxcit^j  that 
which  is  in  the  Mind  of  the  Father.  In  this  way  all  things 
w^ere  made  through  the  Son,  and  without  Him  was  not  any- 
thing made. 

Ch.  16.  'And  think  not  that  only  the  works  of  the  creation 
were  made  through  the  Son,  but  also  whatever  has  been  thence- 
forward done  of  God.  For  the  Father,  Who  loveth  the  Son  and 
hath  given  over  all  things  into  His  hand,  hath  loved  Him  from 
the  beginning,  and  hath  given  over  all  things  from  the  begin- 
ning ,  .  .  and  with  no  exception  of  any  time,  for  all  things  would 
not  be  given  over  if  they  had  not  been  so  given  in  all  time.  It 
was  therefore  the  Son,  Who  from  the  beginning  acted  as  judge, 
overthrowing   that  most    haughty    tower,    and    scattering    the 

G  s 


450  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

tongues,  punishing-  the  whole  world  by  the  violence  of  waters, 
raining,  God  from  God,  fire  and  brimstone  upon  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  He  too  it  was  always  Who  came  down  and  talked 
with  men,  from  Adam  to  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  in  vision, 
in  dream,  in  a  glass  {In  speculo),  in  a  riddle  {In  aenlgmale)  ever 
from  the  beginning  paving  the  way  for  His  own  plan  [ordinem 
sumn  praestruens)  which  He  was  about  to  follow  up  to  the  end. 
Thus  was  even  God  ever  practising  {edlscebaf)  to  converse  on 
earth  with  men ;  and  no  other  God  than  the  Word,  Who  was  to 
become  flesh.  Now  He  was  thus  practising,  in  order  that  He 
might  establish  faith  in  us,  that  we  might  the  more  readily 
believe  that  the  Son  of  God  has  come  down  into  the  world,  when 
we  perceived  that  even  of  old  something  of  the  same  kind  had 
been  done.  For  for  our  sakes,  as  they  were  written,  so  were 
they  also  done,  iopon  whom  the  ends  of  all  ages  are  come.  For  thus 
did  He  even  then  know  the  feelings  of  man;  He  Who  was  about  to 
take  upon  Him  even  the  very  essential  elements  of  Man — Flesh, 
and  Soul ;  questioning  Adam  as  though  He  knew  not,  Where  art 
thou,  Adam  ?  repenting  that  He  had  made  man,  as  though  He 
had  not  foreseen  all  ;  tempting  Abraham,  as  though  He  did  not 
know  what  is  in  man  ;  offended  with  some,  and  then  recon- 
ciled to  the  same;  and  whatever  else  heretics  lay  hold  of  as 
unworthy  of  God,  and  destroying  [the  idea  of]  the  Creator,  not 
knowing  that  these  things  belonged  to  the  Son,  Who  was  to 
undergo  even  the  sufferings  of  human  nature,  thirst  and  hunger 
and  tears,  and  even  birth  and  death  itself,  being  for  this  made 
of  the  Father  a  liitle  lower  than  the  angels.  .  .  .  But  what  a 
thing  is  it,  that  that  Almighty  God,  the  Invisible,  Whom  no  man 
hath  seen  nor  can  see,  Who  dwelleth  in  light  that  none  cati  approach 
ituto,  Who  dwelleth  not  in  things  made  toith  hands,  at  the  sight 
of  Whom  the  earth  trembles,  and  the  hills  melt  like  wax.  Who 
grasps  the  tohole  world  in  Ills  hand  like  a  nest,  Whose  throne 
is  Heaven,  and  the  earth  His  footstool,  in  Whom  is  all  space. 
Himself  in  no  space,  Who  is  the  utmost  bound  of  the  whole 
Universe,  that  He,  the  Most  High,  walked  in  Paradise  at  eventide, 
seeking  Adam ;  and  closed  the  ark  after  Noah's  entering  in ;  and 
with  Abraham  refreshed  Himself  under  the  oak ;  and  called  to 


NOTE  VII.]  Terhillian.  451 

Moses  from  the  buraing-  bush ;  and  in  the  furnace  of  the  Baby- 
lonian King  appeared  with  the  three,  though  called  a  Son  of 
man;  were  it  not  that  these  things  were  done  in  appearance,  in  a 
glass,  in  a  riddle  [in  imayine  et  specula  et  aeiiigmak)?  And  of 
a  truth  neither  of  the  Son  of  God  had  these  things  been  to  be 
believed  had  they  not  been  written ;  perhaps  not  to  be  believed, 
even  had  they  been  written,  concerning  the  Father,  Whom  these 
people  bring  down  into  Mary's  womb,  and  set  before  Pilate's 
judgment-seat  and  shut  up  in  Joseph's  sepulchre.  And  from 
this  accordingly  their  mistake  is  evident.  For  being  ignorant 
that  even  from  the  beginning  the  whole  order  of  God's  Dispen- 
sations has  had  its  course  through  the  Son,  they  believe  that  the 
Father  Himself  was  both  seen,  and  conversed,  and  wrought,  and 
suffered  hunger  and  thirst  .  .  .  and  so  that  one  only  Divine 
Person,  that  is,  the  Father,  always  acted  in  those  things  which 
really  were  done  through  the  Son.' 

7.  Against  the  Jews,  Chap.  9.  Professor  Burton,  giving  a 
passage  from  the  Treatise  Against  Marcion,  Book  III.  ch.  16, 
writes  as  follows : — '  The  same  passage  occurs  nearly  word  for 
word  in  TertuUian's  work  against  the  Jews,  c.  9,  where  he 
says,  "  He  who  spoke  to  Moses  was  the  Son  of  God,  who  was 
always  visible  [rather.  Who  also  ever  was  seen,  i.  e.  Who  also 
always  was  He  Who  was  seen]  ;  for  Ko  one  Jiath  ever  seen  God 
the  Father  and  lived  ;  and  therefore  it  is  evident  that  the  Son  of 
God  himself  spoke  to  Moses,  and  said  to  the  people,  BeJiold,  etc. 
[Exod.  xxiii.  20)."  We  have  only  to  observe  that  Tertullian 
refers  these  words  to  Christ ;  and  yet  if  we  look  to  the  Book  of 
Exodus,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  but  that  they  were  spoken  by 
the  Almighty  himself:  and  the  passage  is  more  remarkable, 
because  Tertullian  and  all  the  Fathers  considered  the  Angel 
here  promised  to  be  Christ :  so  that  Christ  promised  that  he 
would  send  himself;  which  is  wholly  unintelligible,  unless  we 
believe  that  the  Father  and  the  Son  arc  one.  That  Tertullian 
believed  so  [i.  e.  that  they  are  One  in  Essence,  but  distinct  in 
Person]  is  plain  from  this  passage.'  [Burton,  §  123,  p.  326.) 
What  we  mus^t  understand  is,  That  the  promise  from  the 
Father  of  the  accompanjiug  guidance  and   protection  of  the 

G  g  3 


452  The  Thcophanies.     St.  Hippolytus.         [app. 

Divine  Angel  of  the  Loud  was  itself  spoken  througli  the  Word^ 
the  Eternal  Son,  Who  is  Himself  the  Angel  of  the  Loed. 

VII.  St.  Hippolytus,  about  a.d,  220,  a  disciple  (so  Photius 
says)  of  St.  Irenaeus  and  teacher  of  Orig-en;  Bishop  of  Portus 
Romanus,  and  a  martyr. 

1.  On  Daniel  iii.  22  (Lagarde's  Hippolytus^  §  84):  'They 
who  were  in  the  furnace  were  bedewed  by  the  Angel,  ebpocrC- 
CovTo:'  evidently  from  ver.  25  of  the  Fragment  of  Theodotion's 
Greek  version  of  Daniel,  which  contains  The  Song  of  the  Three 
Children,  Hut  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  came  down  into  the  oven 
together  loith  Azarias  and  his  fellows,  and  made  the  midst  of  the 

furnace  as  it  had  been  a  moist  tvhistUng  toiud,  ws  Trv^vixa  bpoaov 
hiaavpiCov.  Compare  the  next  passage,  on  Dan.  iii.  25, 
'  The  hand  of  God  touched  with  compunction  (Karew^iv)  the 
heart  of  the  King,  so  that,  acknowledging  Him  [the  Son  of 
God]  in  the  Furnace  he  glorified  Him.  .  .  .  The  Scripture 
showed  beforehand  that  the  Gentiles  would  acknowledge  when 
incarnate  Him  Whom  of  old  not  yet  incarnate  {aaapKov)  Nabu- 
chodonosor  saw  and  acknowledged  in  the  furnace,  and  confessed 
that  this  was  the  Son  of  God.  .  .  .  He  (the  King)  called  out 
the  names  of  the  three,  but  the  name  of  the  fourth  he  could  not 
utter.     For  Jesus  was  not  yet  born  of  the  Virgin.' 

2.  On  Laji.  vii.  18  (Lagarde's  ed.  §  103):  'The  heavenly 
King  shall  be  openly  shown  to  all,  no  longer  seen  through  an 
appearance  as  in  a  vision,  nor  revealed  in  a  pillar  of  cloud  on  the 
top  of  a  mountain  [i.  e.  as  at  Sinai]  ;  but,  with  powers  and 
angelic  hosts,  incarnate  God  and  man,  Sou  of  God  and  Son  of 
man,  coming  to  the  world  as  judge  from  heaven.' 

3.  On  the  great  vision  of  The  Man  clothed  in  linen,  Dan.  x.  5  (La- 
garde's Hippolytus,  §  59.  24,  p.  160)  :  '  Whereas  in  the  first  vision 
he  says,  The  angel  Gabriel  was  sent,  here  it  is  not  so,  but  it  is 
the  Lord  he  sees,  not  yet  indeed  perfectly  man,  but  appearing  "  in 
the  form  of  man,"  as  he  says,  And,  behold,  a  man  clothed  in  linen^ 
[i.  e.  (St.  H.  says)  the  tepartKos  \n(i>v,  or  priestly  vesture].  Then, 
after  quoting  the  words  of  the  man  clothed  in  linen  to  Daniel, 
he  says,  '  And  who  was  the  speaker  but  the  Angel  who  was 
assigned  to  the  people?'  clearly  meaning  the  Divine  Angel ;  for 


NOTE  VII.]  Origen.  453 

he  adds  {ibid.  28,  p.  162) :  '  This  was  He  Who  withstood  Moses 
in  the  inn  when  he  was  taking-  his  uncircumcised  child  into 
Egypt  \Exocl.  iv.  24,  where  for  the  Heb.  mn''  the  Lxx.  has 
ayyiko'i  Kvptou].  .  .  .  And  noxo,  saith  He,  /  loill  sheiv  thee  the 
truth  {Ban.  xi.  2).  Could  the  Truth  tell  him  anything"  else  but 
the  truth  ?  Wherefore  He  saith  to  him.  Behold^  three  Kings  shall 
arise  in  Persia.'  And  on  xii.  5,  etc.  (ibid.  42,  p.  167) :  '  Who  was 
he  [the  w/aw  clothed  in  linen'\  that  stood  upon  the  water  [of  the 
river],  but  the  very  One,  concerning  Whom  they  [the  law  and 
the  prophets]  long  ago  foretold,  Who  was  in  the  last  days  to 
be  openly  borne  witness  to  by  the  Father  at  the  Jordan,  and 
plainly  pointed  out  to  the  people  hy  John.' 

VIII.  Origen.  Born  in  Egypt  about  a.  d.  185  ;  a  disciple  of 
St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  of  St.  Hippolytus  ;  President  of 
the  Cathedral  School  of  Alexandria,  died  a.  d.  255. 

I  take  the  following  from  Dr.  Burton's  Testimony  of  the 
Ante-Nicene  Fathers  to  the  Divinity  of  Christ : — 

1.  'Origen,  Selecta  in  Genesim,  vol.  ii.  p.  43.  Upon  those 
words  in  Gen.  xxxii.  24,  And  Jacob  was  left  alone,  and  there  wrestled 
a  man  with  him,  &c.,  Origen  has  this  commentary : — "  Who  else 
could  it  be  that  is  called  at  once  man  and  God,  who  wrestled 
and  contended  with  Jacob,  than  He,  who  spake  at  sundry  times  and 
in  divers  manners  unto  the  Fathers  {Ilet).  i.  1),  the  holy  Word  of 
God,  who  is  called  Lord  and  God,  who  also  blessed  Jacob,  and 
called  him  Israel,  saying  to  him,  Thou  hast  prevailed  with  God  ? 
It  was  thus  that  the  men  of  those  days  beheld  the  Word  of  God, 
like  our  Lord's  Apostles  did,  who  said,  That  tvhich  was  from  the 
beginning,  lohich  we  have  seen  icith  our  eyes,  and  looked  ujwn,  and 
our  hands  have  handled,  of  the  Word  of  Life  (i  John  i.  i),  which 
Word  and  Life  Jacob  also  said,  and  added,  1  have  seen  God  face 
to  face."  It  has  been  observed  ah-cady,  that  all  the  Fathers  con- 
sidered it  to  have  been  Jesus,  who  revealed  himself  to  the 
patriarchs.'    [Burton,  §  207,  p.  305.) 

2.  'Upon  Joshua  v.  13,  &c.  [the  Vision  of  the  man  with  the 
sword  draion  in  his  hand^  Origen  (/«  Jesum  Nave,  Hom.  VI,  §  3), 
remarks  :  "  Joshua  therefore  not  only  knew  that  he  was  of  God, 
but  that  he  was  God  :  for  he  would  not  have  worshipped,  if  he 


454  '^^^^  Theopha7iies.     St.   Cyprian.  [a pp. 

had  not  known  him  to  be  God.  For  who  else  is  Captain  of  the 
host  of  the  Lord,  except  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ?"  This  exactly 
agrees  with  the  sentiments  of  all  the  Fathers,  that  the  God  who 
appeared  either  in  a  human  form  or  in  that  of  an  ang-el,  to  any 
of  the  Patriarchs,  was  Jesus  Christ.'     [Burton,  §  210,  p.  308.) 

3.  '  Origen,  in  Psalm  1.  2  :  Oitr  God  shall  come  and  shall  not 
Tieep  silence,  &c.  .  .  .  He,  at  whose  Lirth  we  say,  "  Emmanuel  is 
come  visibly,  and  does  not  keep  silence,"  .  .  .  will  convince  the 
world  of  sin  or  declare  the  will  of  His  Father:  for  He  is  called 
the  Angel  of  great  counseV    [Burton,  §  226,  p.  314.) 

4.  '  Origen,  in  Jerem.,  Horn.  IX  :  The  Word  that  came  to  Jere- 
miah from  the  Lord  (xi.  i).  Whenever  it  is  said  that  the  Word 
came  to  Jeremiah,  or  to  any  of  the  prophets,  Origen  understands 
it  of  Christ  the  Word  of  God.  "  I  know  no  other  Word  of  the 
Lord,  but  him,  of  whom  one  evangelist  says,  In  the  heginning 
ivas  the  Word ;  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God.  It  is  particularly  necessary  for  this  to  be  known  by  us 
ecclesiastics  who  conceive  that  there  is  the  same  God  of  the  Law 
and  of  the  Gospel,  the  same  Christ,  both  then  and  now  and  for 
ever."-'    [Burton,  §  241,  p.  321.) 

5.  '  Origen,  upon  these  words.  Vs.  Ixxx.  7,  Cause  thij  face  to 
shine,  and  we  shall  he  saved,  says,  "  He  here  calls  Christ  the  Face : 
for  he  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God  [Col.  i.  15):"  and  upon 
Ps.  cxix.  58,  which  he  translates,  I  entreated  thy  face  with  my 
tohole  heart,  he  says,  "  The  face  of  God  is  the  express  image  of  his 
substance  [Heb.  i.  3),  as  I  have  often  observed." '  [Burton,  §  94, 
p.  178.) 

IX.  St.  Cyprian,  Bishop  of  Carthage,  martyred  14  Septem- 
ber, 258.  His  evidence  is  contained  in  the  second  of  his  three 
books  of  Scripture  Testimonies  against  the  Jews.  He  shows 
(chs.  I,  2),  'That  Christ  is  the  Wisdom,  and  (ch.  3)  the  Word, 
(4)  the  Hand^  and  Arm,  of  God.'  The  thesis  of  his  fifth 
chapter  is,  ^  That  the  same  Christ  is  the  Angel,  and  God;'  as 
to  which  he  quotes  Gen.  xxii.  11,  the  Angel's  call  to  Abraham 
out  of  heaven;  and  xxxi.  iT-13,  where  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
speaks  of  Himself  to  Jacob  as  the  God  of  Bethel,  Ego  sum  Deus 

*  Compare  St.  Athanasius'  Orations  against  the  Anans,u.  71. 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Athanasius.  455 

qnem  vidisti  in  loco  Dei;  and  F.xod.  xiii,  21,  for  the  presence 
of  God  (i.  e.  Christ)  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  ;  and  xiv. 
19,  the  protecting"  care  of  the  Angel  of  God  in  the  pillar;  and 
xxiii.  20,  21,  the  express  appointment  of  the  Angel  as  their 
protector.  Of  his  sixth  chapter  the  thesis  is,  '  That  Christ  is 
God/  and  he  alleges  in  proof  Gen.  xxxv.  i,  God  said  unto  Jacob, 
Arise,  go  up  to  the  place  Bethel,  and  dwell  there  ;  and  make  there 
an  altar  to  that  God  Who  appeared  unto  thee  when  thou  fieddest 
from  the  face  of  Esau  th>/  brother. 

X.  The  Council  of  Antioch,  held  in  269,  which  condemned 
the  heresy  of  Paul  of  Samosata,  furnishes  the  following-  im- 
portant passage.  It  occurs  in  their  letter  to  Paul,  stating*  the 
belief '  preserved  in  the  Catholic  Church  from  the  time  of  the 
Apostles  to  that  day,'  and  g-iven  in  Routh's  Jleliqniae  Sacrae, 
vol.  ii.  p.  466. 

'  Him  the  Begotten  Son,  the  Onlj^-Beg-otten  Son,  Who  is 
the  Image  of  the  Jnvislhle  God,  the  First-born  before  all  creation, 
the  Wisdom,  and  Word,  and  Power  of  God,  existing  before  the 
ages,  not  by  foreknowledge,  but  in  essence  and  substance,  God 
the  Son  of  God,  we,  having  known  Him  in  both  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  do  confess  and  preach He  it  was.  Who,  ful- 
filling the  Father's  counsel,  appeared  to  and  conversed  with  the 
Patriarchs,  being  witnessed  to,  in  the  same  sections  and  in  the 
same  chapters,  sometimes  as  an  Angel,  sometimes  as  the  Lord 
(Kvpios),  sometimes  as  God.  For  it  were  impious  to  think  that 
the  God  of  the  Universe  is  called  an  Angel :  but  the  Angel  of 
the  Father  is  the  Son,  Himself  being  Lord  and  God.'  See  above, 
Lect.  IV,  §  86,  p.  167. 

XI.  St.  Athaxasius,  born  at  Alexandria,  about  a.d.  297 ; 
attended  his  bishop  at  the  Niccne  Council,  a.d.  325  ;  became 
liimself  bishop  of  Alexandria,  a.d.  326;  died  a.d,  373. 

The  following  passages  are  from  his  Discourses  against 
Arianism,  as  translated  by  Dr.  Newman,  who  in  his  prefatory 
notice  (2nd  ed.,  Pickering,  1881)  styles  them  '  the  greatest  work 
of  their  author.' 

I.  Oral.  I.  38  (I  refer  to  Dr.  Bright's  edition  of  the  Greek 
Text,  Oxford  Press,  1873) :    '  If  He  did  not  pre-exist  .  .  .  how 


456  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

were  all  things  made  by  Him?  .  .  .  And  if  it  was  after  His 
death  that  He  received  His  worship,  how  is  Abraham  seen  to 
worship  Him  in  the  tent,  and  Moses  in  the  bush?  and  how, 
as  Daniel  saw,  were  myriads  of  myriads,  and  thousands  of 
thousands  ministering*  unto  Him  ?  '  To  this  passage  Dr.  New- 
man appends  this  footnote,  '  All  this  implies  a  traditional  and 
authoritative  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament.' 

2.  Oral.  II.  13  :  'If  then  they  suppose  that  the  Saviour 
was  not  Lord  and  King,  even  before  He  became  man  and 
endured  the  Cross,  but  then  began  to  be  Lord,  let  them  know 
that  they  are  openly  reviving  the  statements  of  Samosatene. 
But  if,  as  we  have  noted  and  declared  above,  He  is  Lord  and 
King  everlasting,  seeing  that  Abraham  worships  Him  as  Lord, 
and  Moses  says,  Then  the  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom  and  upon 
Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the  Lord  out  of  heaven ;  and 
David  in  the  Psalms,  The  Lord  said  unto  My  Lord,  Sit  Thou  on 
My  right  hand ;  and.  Thy  Throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever; 
a  sceptre  of  righteousness  is  the  sceptre  of  Thy  kingdom,  and.  Thy 
kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom ;  it  is  plain  that  even  before 
He  became  man.  He  was  King  and  Lord  everlasting,  existing 
as  Image  and  Word  of  the  Father.' 

3.  Orat.  III.  13:  '  And  if  the  Patriarch  Jacob,  blessing  His 
grandchildren  Ephraim  and  Manasses,  said,  God  loho  fed  me  all 
my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the  Angel  that  delivered  me  from  all 
evil,  fjless  the  lads,  yet  none  of  created  and  natural  Angels  did  he 
join  to  God  their  Creator,  nor,  rejecting  God  that  fed  him,  did 
he  from  any  Angel  ask  the  blessings  on  his  grandsons ;  but  in 
saying.  Who  delivered  me  from  all  evil,  he  showed  that  it  was  no 
created  Angel,  but  the  Word  of  God,  whom  he  joined  to  the 
Father  in  his  prayer,  through  whom,  whomsoever  He  will,  God 
doth  deliver.  For  knowing  that  He  is  also  called  the  Father's 
Angel  of  great  Counsel,  he  said  that  none  other  than  He  was  the 
Giver  of  blessing,  and  Deliverer  from  evil.  Nor  was  it  that  he 
desired  a  blessing  for  himself  from  God,  and  for  His  grand- 
children from  the  Angel,  but  for  them  too  from  Him  whom  he 
himself  had  besought,  saying,  /  will  not  let  Thee  go  except  Thou 
bless  me  (for  that  was  God,  as  he  says  himself,  I  have  seen  God 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Athanasius.  457 

face  to  face) i  for  Him  it  was  that  he  prayed  for  a  blessing  on  the 
sons  of  Joseph  also. 

'  It  belongs  then  to  an  Angel  to  minister  at  the  command  of 
God,  and  often  does  he  go  forth  to  cast  out  the  Amorite,  and  is 
sent  to  guard  the  people  in  the  way  ^;  but  these  are  not  his 
doingSj  but  of  God  who  commanded  and  sent  him,  whose  also 
it  is  to  deliver  whom  He  will  deliver.  Therefore  it  was  no 
other  than  the  Lord  God  Himself  whom  he  [Jacob]  had  seen, 
who  said  to  him,  And  behold  I  am  with  thee  to  guard  thee  in  all 
the  %oay  whither  thou  goest ;  and  it  was  no  other  than  the  God 
whom  he  had  seen,  who  kept  Laban  from  his  treachery,  ordering 
him  not  to  speak  evil  words  to  Jacob  ;  and  none  other  than 
God  did  he  himself  beseech,  saying,  Bescne  me  from  the  hand  of 
my  Ijrother  Esau,  for  I  fear  him  ;  for  in  conversation  too  with  his 

wives  he  said,  God  hath  not  suffered  Laban  to  injure  me 

[III.  13].  But  if  it  belong  to  none  other  than  God  to  bless  and 
to  deliver,  and  none  other  was  the  deliverer  of  Jacob  than  the 
Lord  Himself,  and  Him  that  had  delivered  him  the  Patriarch 
besought  for  his  grandsons,  evidently  none  other  did  He  join  to 
God  in  His  prayer,  than  God's  Word,  whom  therefore  he  called 
Angel,  because  it  is  He  alone  who  reveals  the  Father.' 

These  passages  sufficiently  show  St.  Athanasius' general  agree- 
ment with  the  current  belief  of  the  primitive  Church,  at  least 
as  to  the  earlier  Theophanies.  As  to  the  later  ones,  in  the 
narratives  of  which  there  is  more  specific  mention  of  the  Angel, 
he  adopts  the  view  that  the  being  seen  was  a  created  angel,  in 
whom  God,  through  His  Son,  spoke.  Compare,  Orat.  II.  23, 
'  Manoe  the  father  of  Samson,  wishing  to  offer  sacrifice  to  the 
Angel,  was  thereupon  hindered  by  him,  saying,  Offer  not  to  me, 
but  to  God'  But  this  is  an  inexact  quotation  (if  indeed  it  be  in- 
tended for  more  than  a  loose  general  reference)  0?  Judges  xiii.  16, 
whether  in  the  Hebrew  or  the  Septuagint,  which  agree.    Again, 

*  St.  Athanasius  takes  the  Angel  Protector  of  the  Israelites  for  a  created  angel. 
But  see  above,  Lect.  IV.  §  99.  If  the  Divine  Angel  was  the  guardian  of  Jacob — 
and  this  St.  Athanasius  asserts — it  would  seem  to  follow  d  fortiori  that  He  was 
the  guardian,  in  the  crisis  of  their  fortunes,  of  the  nation  descended  from  Jacob  ; 
unless,  indeed,  when  they  wore  actually  under  the  guilt  of  the  sin  of  idolatry,  and 
until  they  repented. 


45 S  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

Oral.  III.  14  :  '  And  he  who  beholds  a  vision  of  angels  [he  refers 
to  St.  Luke  xxiii.  23],  knows  that  he  has  seen  the  Ang-el,  and 
not  God.  For  Zacharias  saw  an  Ang-el  [he  had  been  alluding  to 
the  appearance  of  Gabriel  to  the  father  of  St.  John  the  Baptist] ; 
and  Esaias  saw  the  Lord.  Manoe,  the  father  of  Samson,  saw  an 
Angel ;  but  Moses  beheld  (e^ecopryo-e)  God.  Gideon  saw  an 
Angel,  but  to  Abraham  appeared  God.  And  neither  he  who 
saw  God  beheld  an  Angel,  nor  he  who  saw  an  Angel  considered 
that  he  saw  God  ^ ;  for  greatly,  or  rather  wholly,  do  things  of 
created  nature  differ  from  God  the  Creator.  But  if  at  any  time, 
when  the  Angel  was  seen,  he  who  saw  it  heard  God's  voice,  as 
took  place  at  the  bush ;  for  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  was  seen  in  a 
flame  of  fire  out  of  the  hiish^  and  the  Lord  called  Moses  out  of  the 
bush,  saying,  L  am  the  God  of  thy  father,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  still  was  not  the 
Angel  the  God  of  Abraham,  but  in  the  Angel  God  spoke.  And 
what  was  seen  was  an  Angel,  but  God  spoke  in  him.  For  as 
He  spoke  to  Moses  in  the  pillar  of  a  cloud  ^  in  the  tabernacle,  so 
also  God  appears  and  speaks  in  Angels.  So  again  to  the  son 
of  Nun  He  spake  by  an  Angel.  But  what  God  speaks,  it  is 
very  plain  He  s];)eaks  through  the  Word,  and  not  through 
another.' 

XII.  EusEBius,  Bishop  of  Caesarea,  a.d.  314  to  340;  pro- 
minent at  the  Nicene  Council.  For  his  life,  theological 
opinions,  and  works,  see  Canon  Bright's  Introduction  to  his 
edition  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History  (Oxford  Press,  1H72),  and 
Bishop  Lightfoot  of  Durham's  Article  in  Smith's  Bicfionary  of 
Christian  Biograj)hy. 

I.  The  second  chapter  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History  is  a 
'  Summary  Statement  of  the  Pre-existence  and  Divinity  of 
Christ,'  Who  is  spoken  of  as  '  The  Living  God  the  Word,  Who 
w^as  in  the  beginning  with  the  Father,  .  .  .  the  first  and  only 

'  But  Jacob  wrestled  with  a  man  {Gen.  xxxii.  24)  and  yet  (30)  '  considered  that 
he  saw  God,'  as  St.  Athanasius  himself  admits,  above,  No.  3  ;  and  so  Hagar, 
Gen.  xvi.  7-14;  see  above  Lect.  IV.  §  94;  and  so  Joshua  v.  14,  15;  and  so 
Manoah,  Judges  xiii.  22  ;  an<l  so  David,  1  Chron.  xxi.  16,  17. 

^  But  see  Exodus  xiv.  19,  20,  24,  for  the  identity  of '  the  Lord  '  with  the  Angel 
of  the  Pillar. 


NOTE  VII.]  Eusebius  of  Caesar ea.  459 

Offspring-  of  God^  tlie  Chief- Cajdain  [up\i(TTpaTr]yo<i)  of  the 
rational  and  immortal  host  in  heaven  [evidently  referring  to 
Joshua  V.  14,  Lxx.],  the  Angel  of  the  great  Counsel,  the  Minister 
of  the  unspeakable  purpose  of  the  Father,  the  Creator,  together 
with  the  Father,  of  the  whole  Universe,  next  after  the  Father, 
the  Cause  of  all  things,  the  true  and  only-begotten  Son  of  God, 
of  all  created  things  Lord  and  God  and  King.'  The  whole 
chapter  should  be  read  ;  but  the  following  passages  may  be 
presented  here  :  '  Him,  from  the  first  birth  of  man,  all,  as  many 
as  are  said  to  have  been  eminent  for  righteousness  and  excellent 
godliness,  both  at  the  time  of  that  mighty  servant  Moses, 
and  before  him,  to  begin  with,  Abraham,  and  his  sons,  and  as 
many  as  thereafter  were  holy  men  and  prophets,  contemplating 
with  the  pure  ayes,  of  the  mind,  acknowledged,  and,  as  to  the 
Son  of  God,  assigned  Him  His  due  honour.  Aud  He  ...  is 
established  a  Teacher  [AtSao-KaAo?,  compare  St.  Clement's  OatSa- 
yciiyoi^  to  all  men  of  the  knowledge  of  His  Father.  Aud  so  the 
Lord  God  is  related  to  have  aj)peared  in  the  common  form  of 
man  to  Abraham  as  he  sat  by  the  oak  of  Mamre ;  who,  falling 
down  forthwith,  though  he  saw  with  his  eyes  a  man,  worships 
Him  as  God,  and  entreats  Him  as  Lord ;  and  confesses  that  he 
was  not  ignorant  Who  He  was,  saying  these  very  words,  0  Lord, 
that  judged  all  the  earth,  shall  Thou  not  do  judgment  ?  For  since 
reason  cannot  allow  that  the  unbeg-otten  and  unchano-eable 
Essence  of  God  the  Almighty  should  transform  itself  into  the 
appearance  of  a  man,  or  by  the  likeness  of  any  created  thing 
deceive  the  eyes  of  the  beholders,  or,  again,  that  the  Scripture 
falsely  feigns  these  things,  then  (if  it  be  not  lawful  to  say  it 
was  the  First  Cause  of  all  things)  who  else,  that  is  visible  in 
human  fashion,  can  be  spoken  of  as  God,  and  Lord,  and  Judge 
of  all  the  earth,  and  doing  judgment,  but  only  the  Pre-existent 
Word?  Of  Whom  in  the  Psalms  also  it  is  said,  He  sent  His 
Word,  and  healed  them,  and  delivered  them  out  of  their  destruction. 
Him,  as  Lord  next  after  the  Father,  Moses  very  clearly  speaks 
of,  when  he  says,  The  Jjord  rained  upon  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
hrimsfone  and  fire  from  the  Lord,  Him  too,  again  appearing  in 
human  fashion  to  Jacob,  the  divine  Scripture  speaks  of  as  God, 


460  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

and  as  saying*  to  Jacob,  Thy  name  shall  no  more  he  called  Jacob, 
hit  Israel  shall  be  thy  name,  because  thou  hadst  joower  with  God: 
at  which  time  Jacob  called  the  name  of  that  place  Vision  of  God, 
saying,  For  I  saio  God  face  to  face,  and  my  life  toas  preserved. 
And  of  a  truth  it  is  not  lawful  {ov  ^e'/xt?)  to  suppose  that  the 
Theophanies  recorded  were  only  of  created  and  subject  angels 
and  ministers  of  God ;  for  whensoever  any  such  does  appear  to 
men,  the  Scripture  does  not  conceal  it,  saying"  expressly  that 
not  God,  nor  the  Lord,  but  angels  spake;  as  may  easily  be 
proved  by  innumerable  testimonies.  To  Him  also,  as  the  Com- 
mander of  the  heavenly  angels  and  archangels  and  the  super- 
natural powers,  and,  as  it  were,  the  Minister  of  the  Father, 
entrusted  in  the  second  place  with  the  royalty  and  government 
over  all,  did  Joshua,  the  successor  of  Moses,  give  the  name  of 
"  Chief  Captain  of  the  power  of  the  Lord,"  when  he  saw  Him 
no  otherwise  than  again  in  the  form  and  fashion  of  a  man. 
[Eusebius  quotes  Joshua  v.  13,  &c.]  Whence,  from  these  very 
words  (i.  e.  of  taking  off  the  shoes,  &c.),  thou  must  know  that 
This  was  none  other  than  He  Who  spake  to  Moses  also  ;  for- 
asmuch as  the  Scripture  speaks  in  the  very  same  words  as  in 
this  case  [he  quotes  Exod.  iii.  4,  &c.].'  Further  on,  in  the  same 
chapter,  after  describing  the  early  general  falling  away  of  man- 
kind from  God,  he  says,  'Then  indeed  the  first-begotten  and 
Pre-existent  Wisdom  of  God,  the  same  Word  that  was  before, 
in  His  exceeding  loving-kindness  towards  man,  appeared  to  His 
subjects,  sometimes  by  vision  of  angels,  and  sometimes  by  Him- 
self to  one  or  two  of  the  men  of  old,  God's  favoured  ones ;  and 
no  otherwise  than  in  human  form,  because  it  was  not  possible 
in  any  different  way.' 

In  his  Demonstration  of  the  Gospel,  a  work  which  Bishop 
Lightfoot  of  Durham  characterises  as  '  probably  the  most  im- 
portant apologetic  work  of  the  early  Church,'  we  find,  amid 
some  confusion  and  inconsistency  of  thought,  much  that  bears 
on  the  subject  of  the  manifestation  of  God  through  the  Son 
under  the  elder  dispensations.  The  student  may  look  at 
Book  IV,  chapters  4  and  6,  and  would  be  repaid  by  the  reading 
of  the  whole  of  Book  V,  from  which  the  following  passages  are 


NOTE  VII.]  Eusebms  of  Caesarea.  461 

given.  He  should  however  remember  that  Busebius  expresses 
himself  sometimes  in  language  which  scarcely  harmonises  with 
that  clearly  defined  view  of  the  revealed  relations  of  the  Eternal 
Son  to  the  Eternal  Father,  which  resulted  ultimately  from  the 
Arian  controversy  when  fully  worked  out,  and  which  has  been 
the  precious  heritage  of  the  Catholic  Church  ever  since.  He 
lived  in  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  and  acted  much  with  Arian  or 
Arianizing  friends ;  and  learned  as  he  was — perhaps  too  learned, 
or  at  least  too  merely  literar}^,  and  far  too  voluminous  a  writer — 
he  was  certainly  not  a  clear  thinker,  or  he  would  have  seen  that 
only  the  Catholic  faith,  for  which  Athanasius  contended,  main- 
tains clearly  at  once  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead  and  the  true 
Godhead  of  the  Son,  neither  of  which  verities  Eusebius  would 
have  denied.  The  fault  of  his  statement  is  that  he  pushes  the 
distinctness  of  Personality  too  far,  and  gets  himself  into  a 
dilemma  in  which,  logically,  he  must  cither  admit  two  Gods, 
or  else  deny  Godhead  to  the  Son.  He  fails  to  see  this,  because 
the  idea  underlying  his  language  is  really  the  absurd  one  of 
degrees  of  Godhead. 

2.  In  Book  V  his  object  is  to  show  from  the  Old  Testament 
the  distinctness  in  Personality  between  the  Father  and  the  Son. 
Commenting  (ch.  8)  on  Gen.  xix.  23,  he  points  out,  as  above, 
the  distinction  between  the  Losd  the  Son  and  the  Father  in 
heaven.  Who  had  committed  to  Him  the  punishment  of  the 
ungodly.  In  ch.  9  he  enumerates  the  appearances  to  Abraham, 
from  Gen.  xii.  onwards,  and  remarks  on  Abraham's  intercession 
{Gen.  xviii).  'That  this  was  said  to  angels,  or  to  any  of  the 
ministers  {XtnovpyOiv)  of  God,  I  do  not  think  could  be  fittingly 
affirmed  :  for  it  does  not  belong  to  any  ordinary  being  to  judge 
all  the  earth.  Nay,  it  is  no  angel  that  is  spoken  of  in  the 
earlier  vei'se,  but  some  one  greater  than  an  angel,  even  God 
and  Lord,  Who  near  the  forementioned  oak  was  seen,  together 
with  the  two  angels,  in  the  form  of  man ; '  and  he  goes  on  to 
say  it  was  the  Word  of  God ;  adding,  '  whence  even  until  now 
by  the  people  on  the  spot  the  place  is  reverenced  as  sacred,  for 
the  honour  of  those  who  there  appeared  to  Abraham,  and  the 
terebinth  is  to  be  seen  there  even  now.' 


462  The  TJicophayiies.  [app. 

3.  Similarly,  in  chs.  10-12,  he  quotes  and  discusses  the  nar- 
ratives of  the  appearances  to  Jacob;  showing  how  He  Who  is 
spoken  of  as  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  is  also  clearly  identified  with 
the  Lord  and  God,  and  yet  was  not  the  Father,  but  He  '  Who 
ministers  and  declares  to  men  the  things  of  the  Father/  i.  e.  the 
Word,  though  *  the  Scripture  expressly  calls  Him  God  and 
Lord,  honouring  Him  with  the  title  of  the  four  letters  by  which 
the  Hebrews  are  accustomed  to  express  the  exclusive  unutterable 
and  incommunicable  Name.'  On  Gen.  xxxv.  i  he  distinguishes 
the  speaker.  Whom  he  supposes  was  the  Father,  from  Him  to 
Whom  He  commands  Jacob  to  build  an  altar,  Who  was,  of 
course,  the  Son. 

4.  In  chapter  11  he  takes  the  angel  in  the  flame  of  fire  in 
the  bush  for  a  created  angel,  in  whom,  or  through  whom,  God 
spoke,  referring  the  appearance  to  the  angel  but  the  voice  to 
God ;  and  he  distinguishes  between  the  (supposed  created)  angel 
who  went  before  the  camp  of  Israel  {Exod.  xiv.  19)  and  the 
Word,  Whom  he  associates  with  the  Cloudy  Pillar.  This  mis- 
take very  probably  arises  from  his  knowing  the  Old  Testament 
only  in  the  Greek  Versions,  which  certainly,  by  the  omission  of 
the  article,  and  in  other  ways,  greatly  obscure  the  undoubted 
unique  pre-eminence  of  The  Angel  of  the  Loeb.  He  admits  the 
identity  of  the  Angel  of  God  with  the  Divine  Son  in  the  Theo- 
phanies  to  Abraham  and  Jacob ;  but,  apparently,  not  in  the 
later  ones,  where  there  is  any  mention  of  angels.  This  makes 
his  repeated  decisive  identification  of  the  Cajdain  of  the  Lord^s 
Host  in  Joshua  with  the  Son  the  more  remarkable.  He  seems 
totally  unconscious  that  any  Christian  ever  thought  it  was 
St.  Michael  or  any  creature  angel.  See  below.  No.  10,  p.  465; 
also  Dem.  Evati.  Book  VI,  Introd. ;  Book  VIII,  Introd. 

5.  In  chap.  13,  on  Exod.  iii,  he  writes  :  '  As  in  the  case  of  the 
prophets  fi'om  among  men,  Isaiah,  for  example,  and  Jeremiah, 
and  the  like,  that  which  was  seen  was  a  man,  but  it  was  God 
Who  was  communicating  {O^a-ni^aiv)  through  him  who  appeared, 
as  through  an  instrument  [hC  dpyavov) ;  and  as  it  was  the  Person, 
sometimes  of  Christ,  sometimes  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  sometimes 
of  the  God   over  all,  that  spake  through  the  prophet :   so  to 


NOTE  VII.]  Eusebius  of  Caesar ea.  463 

Moses,  who  is  now  before  us,  the  highest  God  over  all  com- 
municates, through  the  angel  that  appeared,  the  words  above 
quoted.  Of  which  the  sense  would  be  as  follows:  'To  thee 
indeed,  O  prophet,  as  to  one  who  is  learning,  and  cannot  yet 
grasp  more  than  an  angelic  vision,  I  have  for  the  present  willed 
my  angel  to  be  visible,  and  of  Myself  I  declare  My  Name  only  to 
thee,  teaching  thee  that  1  am  that  I  am,  and  that  My  Name  is 
the  Lord  (Kvpios);  but  to  thy  fathers  I  declared  not  this  alone, 
but  also  bestowed  upon  them  a  greater  thing  than  this,  for 
I  was  seen  by  them.  But  Who  this  was  Who  was  seen  by  the 
fathers,  and  that  it  was  not  the  God  over  all,  has  been  shown 
already,  when  we  showed  that  He  Who  is  God  and  Lord  is 
named  Angel  of  God.  How  then,  in  this  passage,  docs  He  Who 
is  beyond  everything.  Himself  being  the  only  God  over  all,  say 
that  He  was  seen  by  the  Fathers  ?  is  a  question  any  one  might 
naturally  ask.  And  the  question  may  be  solved,  if  we  attend 
to  the  exact  language  of  the  divine  Scripture.  For,  while  it 
runs  in  the  Seventy  {Exod.  vi.  3),  And  I  ajjpeared  unto  Ahraham, 
and   Isaac,  and  Jacob,  being  their    God   (0e6s   avTcap   &v,   Heb. 

*^1^  ^^^3.),  Aquila  says,  And  I  aj^peared  unto  Abraham,  and 
unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob  in  a  mighty  God,  {kv  ©eci;  iKai/w). 
From  this  it  is  clear  that  the  God  over  all.  Who  is  alone,  did 
not  Himself  ai)pear  by  His  own  self;  but  spake  to  the  fathers, 
not  as  to  Moses,  through  an  angel,  or  through  the  bush,  or  the 
fire,  but  in  a  mighty  God.  Thus  through  the  Son  was  the 
Father  seen  by  the  patriarchs  also,  according  to  His  saying  in 
the  Gospels,  lie  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father.  For  in 
Him  and  through  Him  was  the  knowledge  about  the  Father 
revealed.  But  when  He  [the  Father]  appeared  for  the  benefit 
of  men  He  was  wont  to  be  seen  through  the  human  form  of  His 
Son  ^,  giving  thereby  beforehand  to  His  favoured  ones  the 
pledge  and  earnest  of  His  Son's  future  presence  among  men  for 
the  salvation  of  all ;  whereas  when  about  to  become  the  avenger 
of  the  ungodly  and  the  chastiser  of  the  Egyptians,  He  mani- 
fested   Himself   not    now  in   a    mighty    God,   but    in    an  angel 

'  I.  e.  through  a  form  or  appearance  like  that  of  the  humanity  which  the  Son 
was  afterward:)  to  unite  peniiauently  to  Hiuiiielf. 


464  The  Theophanies.  [app; 

minister  of  His  vengoance  ^,  and  in  the  form  of  fire,  and  of  the 
flame  which  was  all  but  ready  to  consume  them,  like  the  wood 
of  the  wild  thorn.  Thus  they  say  that,  while  the  bush  was  an 
enigmatical  emblem  of  the  wild,  cruel,  and  untamed  worth- 
lessness  of  the  Egyptians,  the  fire  symbolised  the  vengeful  and 
chastening  power  that  should  overtake  them.' 

6.  In  chap.  14,  Of  the  Cloudy  Pillar^  quoting  'Exod.  xix.  9  ; 
xiii.  21;  Num.  xii.  5  ;  and  ILxod.  xxxiii.  9,  he  says  :  '  The  people 
saw  the  Pillar  of  the  Cloud,  but  to  Moses  he  spake.  But  who 
spake  ?  Obviously  the  Pillar  of  the  Cloud,  He  Who  before 
appeared  to  the  fathers  in  human  fashion  .  .  .  the  Word  of  God, 
Who  on  that  occasion,  because  of  the  multitude,  was  beheld,  both 
b}^  Moses  himself  and  by  the  people,  in  a  cloudy  Pillar,  because 
they  were  not  capable,  as  the  fathers  were,  of  seeing  Him  in  the 
form  of  man.  For  it  was  to  perfect  men  that  the  power  be- 
longed of  seeing  beforehand  His  future  Manifestation  among 
men  as  Incarnate,  which,  forasmuch  as  the  whole  people  could 
not  at  that  time  apprehend.  He  was  seen  of  them  sometimes  in 
fire,  so  as  to  inspire  fear  and  awe  ;  sometimes  in  cloud,  as  giving 
them  laws  in  dim  shadow,  and  under  a  veil  (eTreo-zctatrfxe'rcos  koI 
Ki.Ka\.v\i.\iivii)^  voixodiT&v)'^;  and  of  Moses  too,  in  like  manner,  for 
their  sakes.' 

7.  In  chap.  15,  As  to  the  Angel  Protector  and  Guide,  he 
quotes  Exod.  xxiii.  ao,  &c.  (the  original  promise  of  the  Divine 

'  Observe  the  inconsistency  of  this  with  Eusebius'  assertion  that  He  W^ho 
appeared  to  Joshua  before  the  conquest  of  Canaan  was  the  Son  of  God.  See 
below,  p.  466. 

^  So  Dem.  Evan.  iv.  lO.  '  The  Word  of  God,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  by  the 
merciful  Will  of  the  Father,  Who  loved  mankind,  lest  the  race  dear  to  Himself 
should  sink  in  the  depth  of  ungodliness,  did  meanwhile  flash  forth  some  faint  and 
feeble  rays  of  His  own  Light,  through  the  prophet  Moses,  and  through  devout  men 
both  before  and  after  him,  and  put  forth  already,  in  the  enactments  about  religion, 
the  healing  remedy  for  the  ills  of  men.  Wherefore  the  Word  Himself,  legislating 
{vofxo9eTwv)  througii  Moses,  speaks  plainly  to  the  Hebrew  Nation  {Levit.  xviii.  2), 
After  the  doings  of  the  land  of  Eijypt,  wherein  ye  dwelt,  shall  ye  not  do  :  and  after 
the  doings  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  whither  I  bring  you,  shall  ye  not  do  ...  I  am  the 
Lord  your  God.  .  .  .  These  and  innumerable  other  pious  instructions  and  injunctions 
God  the  Word  in  early  days  laid  upon  them  as  the  Lawgiver  through  Moses,  in  a 
kind  of  introductory  way  furnishing  them  with  the  elements  of  a  godly  life,  by 
means  of  s^'inbols  and  a  certain  shadowy  and  bodily  worship.' 


NOTE  VII.]  Eusebius  of  Caesarea.  465 

Angel),  and  immediately,  xxxii.  34,  and  xxxiii.  2  (the  substitu- 
tion of  the  created  ang-el  after  the  sin  of  the  calf),  without  any 
perce])tion  of  the  difference  between  them,  remarkino-  upon  them, 
'  That  these  are  the  utterances  of  no  ang-el,  but  of  God  only,  is 
clear  to  any  one.  But  of  what  God,  save  Him  Who  was  seen 
by  their  forefathers,  Whom  Jacob  clearly  spoke  to  as  an  Anq-el 
of  God  ?  But  this,  we  saw,  was  the  Word  of  God,  Who  is  styled 
both  Son  of  God,  and  Himself  God  and  Lord.' 

8.  Chapter  16.  He  reg-ards  the  Decalog-ue  as  uttered  by  the 
Son,  Who  is  teaching  therein  to  Moses  and  the  Israelites  due 
reverence  to  God  the  Father.  So  also,  chapter  17,  on  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  Exod.  xxxiv.  5. 

9.  Chapter  18.  On  Exod.  xxiv.  10,  The)/  saw  the  God  of 
Israel,  after  quoting  the  Septuagint,  which  glosses  thus,  ihe^ 
saio  the  place  where  the  God  of  Israel  had  stood,  he  says,  '  Instead 
of  which  Aquila  says,  And  they  saw  the  God  of  Israel,  but 
Symmachus,  Ami  they  satv  in  vision  the  God  of  Israel.  Now, 
because  of  the  text.  None  hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  some  one 
perhaps  might  suppose  the  present  expression  to  be  contrary  to 
that  wholesome  saying,  as  implying  that  the  invisible  nature 
was  visible.  But  if  you  take  this  also  of  the  Word  of  God, 
Who  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners,  was  seen    hy  the 

fathers,  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  cases  already  shown,  you  will 
no  longer  seem  to  fall  into  contradictions.  It  shows  that  the 
God  of  Israel  there  seen  was  the  very  same  as  He  Who  appeared 
also  to  Israel,  when  there  zorestled  a  man  with  him.^ 

10.  Chapter  19.  On  Joshua  v.  13,  &c.,  he  compares  (as, 
above,  Eccl.  Hist.  I.  2)  the  command  to  Moses  at  the  bush,  and 
says:  '  It  was  then  one  and  the  same  God  Who  spake  to  both, 
as  is  proved  by  the  command.  But  now  He  speaks  His  Will 
(^eo-Tri^ei)  through  the  Chief  Captain  of  His  Poiver,  while  to 
Moses  He  did  so  through  the  angel  that  was  seen.  But  far 
above  all  the  celestial  armies  ....  Who  else  could  there  be 
than  the  Word  of  God,  His  first-begotten  Wisdom,  His  Divine 
Offspring?  Reasonably  then  on  this  present  occasion  is  He 
called  the  Chief  Captain  of  the  poirer  of  the  Lord,  as  elsewhere 
the  Angel  of  great  Counsel,  enthroned  together  with  the  Father, 

II  h 


466  The   TJieophanies.  [app. 

the  eternal  and  mighty  High-Priest.  And  it  has  been  demon- 
strated that  He,  the  same,  is  both  Lord  and  God,  and  Christ, 
anointed  by  the  Father  with  the  oil  of  gladness.  Appearing 
therefore  to  Abraham  by  the  oak  He  shows  Himself  with  the 
calm  aspect  and  peaceful  form  of  a  man^  indicating  thereby 
beforehand  (Trpoot/naCo'/xeyos)  His  saving  presence  [i.e.  as  In- 
carnate] among  men ;  and  to  Jacob,  who  was  about  to  struggle 
like  a  practised  wrestler  against  enemies,  He  appears  as  a  man ; 
and  for  Moses  and  the  people  He  led  the  way  in  an  appearance  of 
cloud  and  of  fire,  showing  Himself  at  once  terrible  and  over- 
shadowed [or,  veiled].  But  since  Joshua,  the  successor  of 
Moses,  was  about  to  engage  in  warfare  with  the  old  inhabitants 
of  Palestine,  strange  nations  and  very  wicked,  He  naturally 
shows  Himself  with  His  sivord  drawn  and  sharpened  against  the 
enemy,  all  but  declaring  through  the  vision  that  it  was  indeed 
Himself  Who,  with  unseen  sword,  should  with  Divine  power 
pursue  the  ungodly,  fighting  together  with  His  own,  and 
sharing  the  conflict  with  them.  For  which  reason  He  season- 
ably styled  Himself  the  Lord's  Chief  Captain! 

XIII.  St.  Hilary,  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  a.d.  '>^^'^.  Before  con- 
sidering the  important  passages  from  St.  Hilary's  great  work 
Against  the  Avians,  or,  On  the  Holy  Trinity,  '  the  first  great  con- 
tribution, in  the  Latin  tongue,  to  the  discussion  of  this  great 
dogma  of  the  Christian  faith '  (Canon  Cazenove,  in  Art.  Hilarius 
Pictav.^  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  Christian  Biography)  the  student 
should  note  the  following  remarks  of  the  Benedictine  Editors, 
prefixed  to  Book  IV  : — 

'  Constans  apud  veteres  videtur  opinio,  Filium  ab  initio 
mundi  variis  se  modis  hominibus  si:)ectabilem  praebuisse. 
Hoc  diserte  decent  Justinus  Martyr,  Irenaeus,  Origenes,  Theo- 
philus  Antioch.,  Clemens  Alexandr.,  Tertullianus,  CjiDrianus, 
Patres  Antiocheiii  Concilii  contra  Paulum  Samosat.,  ut  mit- 
tamus  Favistiuum  Presbyterum,  Ambrosium,  Leonem,  aliosque 
plurimos.  Se  ne  ab  lis  quidem  hoc  negatum  est  qui  Ario 
favebant.  Idipsum  passim  praedicat  Eusebius  in  lib.  Dem. 
Ev.,  et  Sirmieuse  concilium  contra  Photiuum  eos  anathemate 
daranat  qui  aliter  senserint. 


NOTE  VII.]    The  Benedic tines''  Note  on  St.  Hilary.     467 

'  Sed  cum  in  bac  doctriua  fraudem  moliti  sint  Ariaiii,  ut 
Filium,  qui  visibilis  ac  visus  sit,  a  Patre  invisibili  iiatura 
dii^similcDi  praedicarcnt ;  alte  retiuendum,  Sanctos  Patres  ita 
Deuni  visum  asscruissc,  ut  cum  Augustino,  Lib.  II.  Cont. 
Maximinum,  cap.  26,  n.  12,  senserint,  "  divinitatem  non  per 
substantiam  suam,  in  qua  invisibilis  et  iminutabilis  est,  sed 
per  creaturam  sibi  subjectam  moitabum  oculis  apparuisse  cum 
voluit."  Ac  ne  peregrina  hue  adsciscamus,  locuples  hujus  rei 
testis  est  Hilarius,  Lib.  II.  n.  45  et  46.  "  Certe,"  inquit,  "qui 
ante  angelus,  nunc  etiam  homo  est  :  ne  naturalem  banc  esse 
Dei  speciem  diversitas  hujus  ipsius  assunq)tae  creationis  pate- 
retur  intelligi.  Adest  autem  Jacob  etiam  usque  ad  luctae 
complexum  in  habitu  humano  ....  Sed  idem  postea  et  Moysi 
esse  ignis  ostenditur :  ut  iiatui*ae  creatae  turn  potius  ad  spe- 
ciem, quam  ad  substantiam  naturae,  fidem  disceres."  Acute 
Augustinus,  Epist.  abas  cxii.  nunc  cxlvii,  num.  20,  in  ilia 
Moysi  verba,  Si  inveni  gratiam  ante  te,  Ostende  mihi  temet- 
ipsum.  "  Quid  ergo,"  inquit.  "  Ille  non  erat  ipse  ?  Si  non  esset 
ipse,  non  ei  diceret,  Ostende  mihi  temetipsum,  sed,  Ostende 
Deum :  et  tamcn  si  ejus  naturam  substantiamque  conspiceret, 
multo  minus  diceret,  Ostende  mihi  temetipsum.  Ipse  ergo  erat 
in  ea  specie,  qua  apjiarere  voluerat :  non  autera  ipse  apparebat 
in  natura  propria,  quam  Moyses  videre  cupiebat." 

*  Si  ex  proximis  Scripturae  verbis  ipsum  Deura  a  IMoyse 
visum  recte  asseruit ;  pari  ratione  concedendum  est  ipsum 
Deum  eidem  Moysi  in  rubo  dixisse  :  Ego  sum  Deus  Abra- 
ham,, etc.,  verumque  Deum  Agar  allocutum  esse,  cui  clamavit : 
Tu  Deus,  qui  adspexisti  me.  Neque  hoc  etiam  negant  ii 
Patres,  qui  in  visis  illis  veros  angelos  adstitisse  arbitrantur. 
Non  enim  existimant  angelos  illos  Dei  ac  Domini  nomcn  sibi 
attribuisse,  quia  ut  legati  Dei  ac  Domini  nomine  loquebantur ; 
quis  enim  legatus  regis,  imperatoris,  aut  principis  sibi  arroget 
nomen,  cujus  pei-sonam  repraesentat  ]  Sed  ideo  potius,  quod 
Deus  ipse  in  illis  loquebatur.  Hoc  diserte  docet  Athanasius 
Or.  IV.  cont.  Arian.,  pag.  467':  ....  Ita  et  Hieronymus, 
cap.  III.  ad  Gal.  :  "  Quod  auteni  lex  ordinata  per  angelos,  lioc 
vult  intelligi,  quod  in  onini  Veteri  Testamento,  ubi  angelus 
primum  visus  refertur,  et  postea  quasi  Deus  loquens  inducitur, 

'  Comp.  above,  p.  458. 
H  h  2 


468  The  Thcophaiiies.  [app. 

angelus  quidem  vere  ex  ministris  pluribus  quicumque  sit  visus, 
sed  in  illo  mediator  loquatur,  qui  dicat ;  Ego  sum  Deus  Abra- 
ham.^' His  accedit  Augustinus,  1.  II.  contra  Maximin.,  cap. 
26.  n.  11:  "  Quaero  quis  apparuerit  Moysi  in  igne  quando 
rubus  inflammabatur,  et  non  urebatur.  Quamquara  et  illic 
angelum  apparuisse  Scriptura  ipsa  declarat  ....  In  angelo 
autem  Deuni  fuisse  quis  dul)itet  1 "  Juxta  hos  Gregorius  Papa, 
Praef.  in  Job,  c.  2  :  "  Angelus,  qui  Moysi  apparuisse  dicitur, 
mode  angelus,  modo  Deus  memoratur.  Angelus  videlicet 
propter  hoc  quod  exterius  loquendo  serviebat ;  Dominus 
autem  dicitur,  quia  interius  praesidens,  loquendi  efBcaciam 
ministrabat.  Cum  ergo  loquens  exterius  ab  interiori  regitur, 
et  per  obsequium  angelus,  et  per  inspirationem  Dominus 
nominatur." ' 

The  passages  in  St.  Hilary  are  the  following- : — 

1.  On  the  Holy  Trinity,  IV.  23.  On  the  Appearance  to  Hag-ar, 
'  He  Who  is  called  the  Ang-el  of  God  is  Himself  Lord  and  God. 
Now  according"  to  the  Prophet  the  Son  of  God  is  The  Angel  of  the 
great  Counsel  (Isa.  ix.  6.  Lxx).  He  is  styled  The  Angel  of  God 
in  order  that  the  distinction  of  the  Persons  mig-ht  be  clear  ;  for 
He  who  is  God  from  God  is  Himself  also  the  Angel  of  God.  But 
in  order  that  the  honour  that  is  due  may  be  g-iven  him  He  is 
proclaimed  both  Lord  and  God.  24.  .  .  .  Can  there  be  any  doubt 
that  the  Same  Who  is  called  the  Ang-el  of  God  is  again  called 
also  God  ?  ...  To  Abraham  God  speaks  ;  but  to  Hagar  spake 
the  Angel  of  God.  Therefore  He  is  God,  Who  is  also  the  Angel : 
because  He  Who  is  the  Angel  of  God  is  God  born  from  God. 
But  He  is  called  the  Angel  of  God  because  He  is  the  Angel  of 
the  great  Counsel.  Yet  the  very  same  is  afterwards  plainly 
shown  to  be  God,  lest  He  Who  is  God  should  be  thought  to  be 
only  a  [created]  angel.'     Compare  V.  11,  13. 

2.  IV.  27.  On  Gen.  xviii.  xix.,  '  Abraham  adores  one  [of  the 
three  men],  and  acknowledges  Him  to  be  the  Lord.  .  .  .  For 
though  He  was  seen  as  a  man,  Abraham  nevertheless  adored 
Him  as  Lord  ;  acknowledging  in  fact  the  mysterious  intimation 
of  His  future  Incarnation  (sacramentum  scilicet  futurae  corpora- 
tionis  agnoscens).'     In  28  he  clearly  distinguishes  the  two  who 


NOTE  VII.]  S/.  Hilary  of  Poitiers.  469 

visited  Lot  in  Sodom  as  created  angels ;  but  says  the  Lord  Who 
rained  judgment  on  Sodom  from  the  Lord  was  the  Son,  and 
quotes  St.  John  v.  22.  So,  in  30  and  31,  of  the  Appearances  to 
Jacob,  '  To  Jacob  also  God  came  in  human  form.  And  not  only 
came  but  is  declared  to  have  wrestled  with  him.  ...  Of  a  truth 
it  was  God  ;  because  Jacob  had  power  with  God,  and  Israel  saw 
God.'     Compare  V.  15,  16,  19,  20. 

3.  IV.  32.  '  But  let  us  see  whether  elsewhere  as  well  as  to 
Hag-ar  this  Angel  of  God  is  known  to  be  God.  Clearly  He  is 
so  known.  And  not  God  only,  but  also  The  God  of  Abraham,  and 
the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  For  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord  appeared  to  Moses  from  the  bush,  while  the  Lord  speaks 
from  the  bush.  Whose  voice  do  you  suppose  must  be  understood  ? 
whether  His  who  was  seen,  or  some  others?  Here  there  is  no 
room  for  mistake.  For  the  Scripture  saith  \Exod.  iii.  2,  &c.],  He 
Who  appeared  in  the  bush,  speaks  from  the  bush  ;  the  place  both 
of  the  vision  and  the  voice  is  one  and  the  same ;  nor  is  any  other 
heard  than  He  Who  was  seen.  He  Who  is  the  Angel  of  God 
when  seen,  the  same  too  when  heard  is  the  Lord ;  while  the  very 
Lord  Who  is  heard  is  presently  known  to  be  the  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob.  Forasmuch  as  He  is  called  the  Angel  of  God, 
He  is  shown  to  be  not  alone  by  Himself  and  solitary  .  .  .  while 
in  that  He  is  styled  Lord  and  God,  He  is  proclaimed  in  the 
honour  and  in  the  name  of  His  own  Nature.'  Again,  in  33, 
commenting  on  the  words  (which  are  in  the  Lxx,  but  not  in  the 
Heb.  or  Vulg.)  of  the  Song  of  Moses,  Bent,  xxxii.  between  42 
and  43,  Bejoice,  ye  heavens,  with  Him,  and  let  all  the  angeU  of  God 
worship  Him  ;  4  3,  Rejoice,  ye  Gentiles,  with  His  People,  and  let  all 
the  sons  [or,  angels']  of  God  honour  Him,  he  says  : — 'And  lest  you 
should  think  that  honour  is  claimed  for  One  Who  is  not  by 
nature  God,  and  should  suppose  that  in  this  place  Moses  thought 
of  honouring  God  the  Father,  whereas  in  truth  the  Father  must 
be  honoured  in  the  Son,  observe  the  blessing  which,  later  in  the 
same  passage  {Dent,  xxxiii.  16),  he  assigns  to  Joseph.  For  he 
says,  And  let  the  things  which  be  according  to  the  good  toill  of  Him 
That  dicelt  in  the  bush  come  upon  the  head  of  Joseph.  God  therefore 
is  to  be  worshipped  by  the  sons  of  God,  but  God  Who  is  also  the 


470  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

Son  of  God.  And  God  is  to  be  honoured  by  the  angels  of  God, 
but  God  Who  is  the  Divine  Angel  of  God;  for  from  the  bush 
appeared  God  the  Angel  of  God,  and  the  things  which  are  accord- 
ing to  His  good  will  are  desired  for  Joseph  when  he  is  being 
blessed.  Not  therefore  because  He  is  the  Angel  of  God  is  He 
on  that  account  not  God  ;  nor,  again,  is  He  not  the  Angel  of 
God  because  He  is  God  ;  but,  by  a  marked  reference  to  a  Plurality 
of  Persons,  and  by  the  thought  of  the  Unbegotten  as  distinct 
from  the  Begotten,  and  by  the  revelation  of  an  economy  depend- 
ing on  heavenly  mysteries,  He  has  taught  us  that  we  must  not 
think  of  God  as  solitary,  since  both  the  angels  of  God  and  the 
sons  of  God  must  adore  a  God  Who  is  both  the  Angel  and  the 
Son  of  God.'     Compare  also  V.  2 1 . 

4.  V.  II,  'The  meaning  of  the  word  '^  angel"  points  rather  to 
office  than  to  nature.  .  ,  .  Accordingly  the  Law,  or  rather  God 
through  the  Law,  purposing  to  intimate  the  distinct  Personality 
of  the  Father's  Name,  spoke  of  God  the  Son  as  the  Angel,  that  is, 
the  Messenger,  of  God.  For  it  clearly  signifies  His  office  in  the 
title  Messenger,  while  it  confirms  the  verity  of  His  Nature  by  the 
Name  it  gives  Him,  in  that  it  calls  Him  God.  But  we  ha,ve 
here  a  relation  arising  from  the  economy,  not  a  relation  of  Being. 
For  we  proclaim  nothing  else  than  the  Father  and  the  Sou  ;  and 
we  so  affirm  the  co-equality  of  Nature  involved  in  these  Names 
as  to  show  that  the  Generation  of  the  Only-Begotten  God  from 
the  Unbegotten  God  involves  the  absolute  verity  of  His  Godhead. 
Now  this  use  of  the  terms  "  Sent "  and  "  Sending"  means  nothing 
else  than  the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  yet  it  in  no  wise  takes  away 
the  verity  of  Nature,  nor  in  the  Son  destroys  the  full  possession  of 
Divinity  by  Nature.  For  none  can  doubt  that  the  nature  of  the 
parent  is  reproduced  together  with  the  generation  of  a  son.' 

5.  V.  17.  'The  mysterious  incidents  (sacramenta)  of  the  Law 
prefigure  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel  Dispensation,  [i.e.  the  In- 
carnation] :  and  the  Patriarch  sees  and  believes  what  the  Apostle 
contemplates  and  preaches.  For  whereas  the  Law  is  the  shadow 
of  things  to  come,  the  outward  appearance  of  the  shadow  ex- 
presses the  reality  of  the  substance.  And  God  in  the  likeness  of 
man  is  both  seen  and  believed  and  adored.  Who  in  the  fulness  of 


NOTE  VII.]  St.  Hilary  of  Poitiers.  471 

time  was  to  be  born  in  the  likeness  of  man.  For  there  was 
assumed  to  the  sig-ht  the  outward  appearance  of  the  reality  that 
was  prefi<^ured.  But  then,  under  the  Law,  God  was  only  seen  in 
the  likeness  of  man,  not  born  :  ailerwards,  He  was  also  born  that 
which  He  appeared.  And  familiarity  with  the  outward  appear- 
ance temporarily  assumed  helps  us  to  grasp  the  reality  of  His 
Birth.  ...  In  Gospel  times  the  shadow  becomes  substance,  the 
semblance  reality,  the  visible  appearance  actual  nature  ;  yet  is 
there  no  change  in  God  Himself.' 

6.  V.  23.  That  the  Law  was  given  to  Moses  by  the  Divine  Son 
of  God  as  Mediator. 

7.  V.  33.  That  it  was  the  Only-Begotten  Son  of  God  Whose 
glory  Isaiah  saw  :  quoting  St.  Jolni  xii.  41. 

8.  Commentinfj  on  the  old  Latin  version  of  the  Lxx  of  Frov. 
viii.  22,  Ki^ptos  iKTKxk  jue  a.f)yj\v  bhSiv  avTov  et?  ^pyo.  avTov,  Dominus 
creavit  me  iniilum  (or,  in  i7iifium)  viarum  snanim  in  opera  sua,  he 
has,  De  Trin.  xii.  45,  a  valuable  summary  passage  which  covers 
the  whole  ground  : — 

'  Ultimae  dispensationis  sacranientum  est,  quo  etiam  creatus 
in  corpore,  viam  se  Dei  operum  est  professus  ^  Creatus 
autem  est  in  vias  Dei  a  saeculo :  cum  ad  conspicabilem 
Bpeciem  subditus  creaturae,  habitiuu  creatiouis  assumpsit.  46. 
Yideamus  itaque  in  quas  Dei  vias,  et  in  quae  opera  a  saeculis 
creata  sit,  nata  ante  saecula  ex  Deo  Sapientia.  Vocem  deam- 
bulantis  in  Paradiso  Adam  audivit  {fien.  iii.  8).  Putasne  deam- 
bulantis  incessum  nisi  in  specie  assumptae  creationis  auditum : 
ut    in    aliqua    creatioue    cousisteret,    qui    inambulans    fuerit 

*  The  Benedictine  footnote  here  is  important :  -  '  Duplex  hie  distinguitur  Verbi 
dispensatio,  ultima  scilicet,  qua  novisbimus  temporibus  homo  factus  inter  homines 
conversatus  est;  altera  vero  ab  initio  saeculi:  ex  quo  varias  variarum  creatiouum 
species  assumens  multifarie  multisque  modis  visus  est  Patribus  •  cum  ex  illo  usque 
tempore,  imiuit  EusebiuH,  lib.  v.  Dem.  Ev.  c.  19,  sulntarem  suam  ad  homines  ad- 
vejitum  exordiietur.  Quod  autem  Dei  Filius,  modo  in  fonua  angeli,  modo  in  forma 
hominis,  modo  in  assumpta  ignis  ac  nubis  specie  visus  sit,  ut  singulis  pro  cuj usque 
a€Fectione  congrueret,  edi.sserit  idem  Eusebius,  ibid,  a  cap.  9  ad  19.  Quibus  con- 
sentit  Auguatinus,  Epist.  clxiv.  ad  Erod.  n.  17  :  Ah  initio  generis  huinani,  vel  ad 
ar;/uendos  malos,  sicut  ad  Cain  ac  j)rius  ad  ipsum  Aduni  uxoremqne  ejus,  vel  ad 
conmlundos  bonos,  vel  ad  utrosque  admonendos,  ut  alii  ad  sulntem  suam  credcrent, 
ipse  utiquc  (Christus)  non  in  came,  sed  in  spirita  renitbat,  lisis  congniis  alloquens 
quos  volebat,  sicut  volebat.' 


472  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

auditus  ?  Non  require  quails  ad  Cain  et  Abel  et  Noe  locutus 
sit,  et  henediceus  quoque  Enoch  (jualis  adfuerit.  Angelus  ad 
Agar  loquitur  [Gen.  xvi.  9,  13)  :  et  utique  idem  Deus  est. 
Numquid  speciei  ejusdem  est  cum  angelus  videtur,  cujus  est 
in  ea  natura  qua  Deus  est  1  Certe  species  angeli  ostenditur, 
ubi  postea  Dei  natura  memoratur.  Sed  quid  de  angelo  dicam  ? 
Homo  ad  Abraham  venit  {Gen.  xviii.  2).  Numquid  secundum 
homiuem  in  creationis  istius  habitu  Christus  talis  assistit, 
qualis  et  Deus  est  %  Sed  homo  loquitur,  et  corpora  assistit, 
et  cibo  alitur :  verumtamen  Deus  adoratur.  Certe  qui  ante 
angelus,  nunc  etiam  homo  est  :  ne  naturalem  banc  esse  Dei 
speciem  diversitas  hujus  ipsius  assumptae  creationis  pateretur 
intelligi.  Adest  autem  ad  Jacob  etiam  usque  ad  luctae  com- 
plexum  in  habitu  humano,  et  manum  conserit,  et  membris 
nititur,  et  lateribus  inflectitur,  et  in  omni  motu  nostro  inces- 
suque  consistit  {Gen.  xxxii.  24).  Sed  idem  postea  et  Moysi 
esse  ignis  ostenditur  {Exodi  iii.  2) ;  ut  naturae  creatae  tum 
potius  ad  speciem,  quam  ad  substantiam  naturae  fidem  disceres. 
Habuit  tum  in  se  potestatem  conflagrandi,  non  tamen  naturalem 
suscipiens  urendi  necessitatem  :  quia  sine  rubi  damno  confla- 
gratio  ignis  apparuit.  47.  Carre  per  tempora,  et  intellige 
qualis  visus  sit,  vel  Jesu  Nave  nominis  sui  prophetae,  vel  Esaiae 
etiam  cum  {.Joan.  xii.  41)  evangelico  testimonio  visum  pi'aedi- 
canti,  vel  Ezechieli  usque  ad  conscientiam  resurrectionis  as- 
sumpto  {Ezech.  xxxvii.),  vel  Danieli  hominis  filium  in  aeterno 
saeculorum  regno  confitenti  {Dan.\n.  13,  14)  caeterisque  aliis, 
quibus  se  in  habitu  variae  creationis  ingessit,  in  vias  Dei  et  in 
opera  Dei,  ad  coguitionem  scilicet  Dei  et  nostrae  aeternitatis 
profectum.  Quid  hie  nunc  haec  humanae  salutis  dispensatio 
tum  impiam  aeternae  nativitatis  contumeliam  niolitur'?  Creatio 
ista  a  saeculis  est :  caeterum  ante  saecula  infinita  nativitas  est. 
Vim  sane  nos  dictis  aflferre  conteude,  si  Propheta,  se  Dominus, 
si  Apostolus,  si  sermo  ullus  ad  divinitatis  aeternae  nativitatem 
cieaturae  retulit  nomen.  In  his  enini  omnibus  Deus,  qui  ignis 
cousumens  est,  ita  creatus  inest,  ut  creationem  ea  virtute  qua 
assumpsit  absumeret :  potens  abolere  rursum,  quod  tantum  ad 
causam  contemplatiouis  exstiterat.' 

XIV.  St.  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan  from  a.d.  374  to  a.d.  397. 
I.  In  his  work   O71  Abraham,  Book  I.  ch.  vi.  speaking  of  the 


notevil]  St.  Ambrose.  473 

Appearance  recorded  in  Gen.  xviii.  and  xix,  he  clearly  dis- 
tinguishes one  of  the  'three  men'  as  Divine:  '32.  Illi  Deus  ap- 
paruit  ad  (luercum  Mambrc.  33.  Deus  illi  apparuit  et  tres 
aspexit.  ^fi.  Tres  vidit,  ct  unum  Dominum  appellavit^  ipsius 
solius  se  servum  fatetur.  Deinde  conversus  ad  duos  quos  mini- 
stros  arbitrabatur,'  etc.  And,  ih.  §  49,  of  the  two  who  went  on 
to  Sodom :  '  Illi  qui  ad  Abraham  simul  cum  Domino  venerant, 
Sodomam  j^etierunt  viri ; '  and  50  :  '  Ubi  gratia  larg-ienda  est 
Christus  ad  est :  ubi  exercenda  severitas,  soli  adsunt  ministri, 
deest  Jesus.' 

2.  And  on  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  Ibid.  ch.  viii.  §  78,  on  Gen. 
xxii.  14 :  '  Vocavit  Abraham  nomeu  loci  illius,  Dominus  videt,  ut 
dicanl  hodle:  In  m.onie  Bonunus  apparuit^  hoc  est,  quod  apparu- 
erit  Abrahae,  revelans  futuram  sui  passionem  corporis,  qua 
mundum  redemit.' 

3.  On  Jacob,  Book  II.  ch.  iv.  16;  on  Gen.  xxviii.  ii  :  'Vidit 
angelos  Dei  ascendentes  et  descendentes,  hoc  est,  Christum  prae- 
vidit  in  terris,  ad  quem  angelorum  caterva  descend  it  atque 
ascendit,  obsequium  proprio  domino  pio  praebitura  servitio;'  and 
on  Gen.  xxxii.  24  :  '  Luctatus  est  cum  Deo.^ 

4.  On  Psalm  xxxv.  §  18 :  '  Angelis  ang-elus  factus  est  Dei  Filius, 
prophetis  propheta.' 

5.  On  Psalm  cxix.  Sermon  xviii.  §  29,  he  says,  addressing-  the 
Jews:  '  Miramini  Moysen,  quia  patres  vestros  per  mare  siccis 
duxit  vestigiis.  Moyses  non  imperavit,  sed  impetravit :  nou 
jussit  mari,  sod  servivit  jubenti  fiuctibus.  Moyson  laudatis,  quia 
regem  Pharao  cum  exercitu  suo  mersit :  Moyses  orabat,  et  alius 
imperabat.  Moyses  precabatur,  Christus  operabatur.  Moyses 
fugiebat,  Christus  insequebatur.  Moyses  columnam  sequebatur, 
ut  nocturnas  tenebras  declinaret :  Christus  illuminabat.  Moysen 
agnoscitis,  quia  aquae  amaritudinem  temperavit.  Moysen  agno- 
scitis,  quia  aquam  produxit  de  petra  :  Christum  non  agnoscitis, 
qui  vcro  illius  Aegyptii  regis  stravit  exercitum,  et  abyssi  mersit 
profundo.'     (Migne's  ed.  vol.  i.  pt.  ii.  p.  1462.) 

6.  On  St.  Luke,  Book  I.  §  24,  on  the  appearance  of  the  angel 
to  Zacharias  in  the  Temple:  '  Bene  apparuisse  dicitur  ei,  qui  cum 
repcnte  conspcxit.     Et  hoc  spccialiter  aut  de  angelis,  aut  de  Deo 


474  ^/^^'   Theop/i antes.  [app. 

Scriptura  divina  tenere  consuevit :  ut  quod  non  potest  prae- 
videri,  apparcre  dicatur  ;  sic  enim  habes,  Apparuit  Deus  Abrahae 
ad  ilicem  Mambre.  Nam  qui  ante  non  praesentitur,  sed  repentino 
videtur  aspectu,  apparere  memoratur.  Non  enim  similiter  sensi- 
bilia  videntur,  et  is  in  cujus  voluutate  situm  est  videri,  et  cujus 
naturae  est  non  videri,  voluntatis  videri.  Nam  si  non  vult,  non 
videtur;  si  vult,  videtur.  .  .  .  25.  Et  quid  de  hominibus  lo- 
quimur,  cum  etiam  de  ipsis  coelestibus  virtutibus  et  potestatibus 
leg"erimus  quia  Benm,  nemo  vlillt  unquam  (Joan.  i.  18)?  et  addidit 
quod  ultra  coelestes  est  potestates :  Unigenitus  Films  (pd  est  in 
sinu  Patrls,  ijjse  enarravit.  Aut  adquiescatur  ig-itur  necesse  est, 
si  Deum  Patrem  nemo  vidit  unquam,  Filium  visum  esse  in 
veteri  Testamento ;  et  desinant  haeretici  ex  Virgine  ei  principium 
dare,  qui  antequam  nasceretur  ex  Virgine,  videbatur :  aut  certe 
refelii  non  potest,  vel  Patrem,  vel  Filium,  vel  certe  Spiritum 
Sanctum,  si  tamen  est  Spiritus  Saneti  visio,  ea  specie  videri, 
quam  voluntas  eleg-erit,  non  natura  formaverit ;  quoniara  Spiri- 
tum quoque  visum  accepimus  in  columba.  Et  ideo  Deum  nemo 
vidit  umquam  :  quia  earn  quae  in  Deo  habitat  plenitudinem  di- 
vinitatis  nemo  conspexit,  nemo  mente  aut  oculis  comprehendit.' 

7.  In  his  Treatise  On  the  Faith,  Book  I.  ch.  iv,  after  a  passage 
on  the  union  of  the  human  with  the  Divine  in  the  Incarnation, 
showing-  that  it  does  not  trench  on  the  Unity  in  Trinity,  he  adds : 
'  Such  is  our  faith.  Thus  God  willed  Himself  to  be  known  by 
all.  Thus  the  Three  Children  believed,  and  felt  not  the  flames 
around  them.  .  .  .  For  there  was  present  in  the  appeai'ance  of 
an  Angel  One  Who  showed  that  under  the  number  of  the 
Trinity  praise  should  be  offered  to  one  Divine  Power.  God 
was  being  blessed  [i.  e.  in  the  Song  of  the  Three  Children],  the 
Son  of  God  was  being  seen  in  the  form  of  an  angel,  the  grace 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  speaking  in  [the  Song  of]  the  children.' 
And,  ibid.  ch.  xiii :  '  The  heathen  King  saw  in  the  fire  together 
with  the  three  Hebrew  youths  the  form  of  a  fourth  like  as  of  an 
angel :  and  because  he  thought  he  excelled  the  angels,  he 
judged  Him  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  ...  So  too,  Abraham  saw 
three,  and  adored  One.' 

8.  In  the   same  chapter,  commenting  on  the  Voice  of  the 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Ambrose.  475 

Father  at  the  Transfig-uration,  he  says :  '  This  [the  Son  of  God] 
is  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  the  God  of  Jacob, 
Who  appeared  to  Moses  in  the  bush,  of  Whom  Moses  says.  He 
that  is  hath  sent  me  unto  you.  The  Father  spake  not  in  the 
bush,  the  Father  spake  not  in  the  desert:  but  the  Son  spake  to 
Moses.  .  .  .  This  is  He  That  gave  the  Law,  the  Same  That 
spake  to  Moses,  saying :  /  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of 
Isaac,  the  God  of  Jaeofj.  This  therefore  is  the  God  of  the  patri- 
archs. This  is  the  God  of  the  prophets.' 

9.  Ibid.  Book  II.  ch.  ii.  he  shows  the  merciful  goodness  of 
Christ  from  His  benefits  to  the  Israelites  of  old  :  '  Is  not  He 
good.  Who,  when  six  hundred  thousand  of  the  people  of  the 
Jews  were  fleeing  before  their  ])ursuers,  suddenly  divided  the 
yawning  Red  Sea  tide  and  made  its  waters  stand  on  an  heap, 
in  such  wise  that  the  waves  guarded  the  believers,  and,  turning 
back  again,  drowned  the  unbelievers?  Is  not  He  good,  at 
Whose  biddino-  the  seas  were  made  solid  for  them  that  fled,  the 
rocks  made  liquid  for  them  that  thirsted;  that  the  act  of  the 
true  Creator  should  be  acknowledged,  when  the  water  grew  firm 
and  the  rock  flowed?  For  which  reason,  that  thou  shouldest 
own  the  work  of  Christ,  the  Apostle  said,  Now  that  Bock  was 
Christ.  Is  not  He  good,  Who,  lest  hunger  should  attack  them, 
fed  so  many  thousands  of  people  in  the  wilderness  with  bread 
from  heaven  .  .  .  and  caused  that  through  forty  years  their 
raiment  waxed  not  old  .  .  .  setting  in  this  before  believers  a 
pledge  and  type  of  the  future  resurrection  ? ' 

10.  Ibid.  Book  II.  ch.  viii.  §  71.  Proving,  against  the  Arians, 
that  Christ  is  not  inferior  to  the  Father  as  touching  His  God- 
head, he  says  :  '  He  Himself  speaks  to  Abraham,  H//  Mi/self  have 
1  sivorn  (Crew.  xxii.  16).  Now  the  Apostle  shows  that  He  Who 
swears  by  Himself  cannot  be  inferior  [he  quotes  Ileb.  vi.  13,  14]  ; 
Therefore  Christ  had  none  greater,  and  so  He  swore  by  Himself. 
.  .  .  72.  Or  if  they  will  have  it  that  it  would  seem  to  have  been 
said  of  the  Father,  the  rest  agrees  not  thereto :  for  neither  did 
the  Father  appear  to  Abraham,  nor  did  he  wash  the  feet  of  God 
the  Father,  but  His  in  Whom  was  the  appearance  (figura)  of  the 
Man  He  was  to  be.     Finally  the  Son  of  God  says,  Abraham  saw 


47^  The  Thcophafiies.  [app. 

My  day,  and  was  glad.     It    was   He    therefore  Who  sware  by 
Himself,  Whom  Al)raham  saw.' 

11.  On  the  Holy  Spirit,  Book  I.  ch.  iv :  '  There  is  one  Son,  Who, 
according-  to  the  history  of  the  Old  Testament,  was  offended  by 
Adam,  seen  by  Abraham,  adored  by  Jacob.'  On  this  the 
Bened.  Editors  write :  '  The  Son  is  said  to  have  been  offended 
by  Adam,  because  Ambrose,  like  very  many  of  the  ancient 
Fathers,  is  wont  to  assig-n  the  Creation  of  the  world,  and  all  the 
Apparitions  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  Son.' 

12.  The  following"  passages  also  may  be  referred  to  in  the 
valuable  early  commentary  on  St.  Paul's  Epistles  which  is 
usually  g-iven  as  an  Appendix  to  the  Works  of  St.  Ambrose: — 
{a)  On  Rom.  ii.  22.  Op.  S.  Ambr.  Tom.  ii.  P.  ii.  p. 40  (70) :  {b)  Rid. 
On  Eo7n.  x.  13,  p.  87  (144) :  (<?)  On  2  Cor.  v.  19-21,  p.  184  (297) : 
(<:/)  On  Coloss.  i.  15,  Qui  est  imago  invisihilis  Dei,  p.  264  (422). 

XV.  St.  Jerome,  born  about  a.d.  346,  died  a.d.  420.  There 
is  not  much  in  this  writer  that  bears  on  the  subject  of  the 
Theoi^hanies ;  neither  in  what  he  does  say  is  he  alwaj  s  consistent. 
His  expositions  of  Holy  Scripture  are  not  of  very  g-reat  value. 
He  has  preserved  much  that  is  interesting  of  the  interpretation 
of  the  Old  Testament  current  among  the  Jews  of  his  day,  wnth 
which  he  was  thorong-hly  acquainted ;  but  the  Christian  inter- 
pretation, as  given  by  him,  seems  often  fanciful  and  far-fetched. 

I.  On  the  Appearances  to  Jacob  he  writes  as  follows: — (a) 
Against  the  Pelagians,  III.  8  :  '  Afterwards  he  fights  with  an 
ang-el  in  the  form  of  man,  and  is  strengthened  by  the  Lord. 
Instead  of  Jacob  or  &upplanter,  he  received  the  name  of  Most 
ujjright  [man]  of  God  (Rectissimus  Dei).  .  . .  Peniel  is  interpreted 
Face  of  God.  Wherefore  Moses  writes  [01  Jacob]  /  saw  the  Lord 
[or  God^face  to /ace,  and  my  life  is  preserved,  not  in  the  inward 
reality  (proprietate)  of  His  Nature,  but  by  the  gracious  con- 
descension of  His  mercy.'  [h)  In  His  Hebrew  Questions  on 
Genesis  xxxii.  27,  he  has  a  full  note  on  the  name  Israel,  entirely 
repudiating  its  interpretation  as  Man  (or  Mnd)  seeing  God, 
though  he  says  this  was  the  current  view  (i.e.  among  Chris- 
tians) ^ ;  and  paraphrasing  the  Angel's  words  thus  :  '  For  as  I  am 

*   'Omnium  pene  .sermone  detritum  .  .  .  Quamvis  igitur  grandis  auctoritatis  sint, 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Jerome.  477 

a  prince;  so  too  thou  who  hast  been  able  to  wrestle  with  me 
shalt  be  called  a  prince.  And  if  thou  couldest  strive  with  me 
who  am  God,  or  Ang-el  (for  many  interpret  it  variously),  how 
much  more  with  men,  i.  e.  with  Esau,  whom  thou  needest  not 
fear  ? '  (r)  Commenting"  on  Hosea's  allusion,  xii.  3,  he  prefixes 
to  a  Latin  rendering-  of  the  LXX,  which  agrees  with  the  present 
Hebrew,  his  own  Vulgate  rendering,  which  does  not :  LifortUu- 
dine  sua  directus  est  cum  angelo,  et  invaluit  ad  angeliim,  et  confortatiis 
est;  and  in  his  exposition,  which  agrees  best  with  the  view  of 
a  created  angel  in  whom  or  through  whom  God  spoke  (nominis 
ejus  quod  illi  ab  Angelo  et  a  Deo  impositum  est),  he  yet 
speaks  of  Jacob  as  '  roboratus  benedictionibus  angeli,  qui  ipse 
est  Deus.' 

2.  On  the  Appearance  to  Moses  at  the  Bush  he  adopts  the 
primitive  and  usual  view,  Against  Jovinian,  Book  I.  20 :  '  Moses, 
when  he  saw  the  great  vision,  the  Angel,  or  the  Lord  speaking 
in  the  bush,  was  by  no  means  able  to  approach  him,  until  he  had 
loosed  the  latchet  of  his  shoe.' 

3.  On  the  Song  of  Deborah,  Judges  v.  23,  Curse  ye  Meroz, 
sa'dh  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  he  quotes,  and  seems  to  adopt,  the 
Jewish  interpretation  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  as  Michael. 

4.  On  Isaiah's  Vision  {Comm.  on  Isa.  Bk.  III.  vol.  iv.  p.  92) 
he  interprets  the  threefold  Sanctus  as  '  showing  the  mystery  of 
the  Trinity  in  One  Godhead,'  and  adds,  that  '  we  teach  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  Evangelist  John  (xii.  41)  and  the  Apostle 
Paul  [Acts  xxviii.  25),  that  the  Son  of  God  was  seen  in  the 
Majesty  of  one  who  reigned  as  King,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
spake.'     Compare  also  Comm.  on  Ezek.  i.  22,  &c. 

5.  On  Ezeklel,  ch.  i.  (Works,  vol.  v.  p.  20),  he  says :  '  That  we 
must  understand   the   Man   [seated  on  the  sapphire  throne]  of 

et  eloquentiae  ipsorum  umbra  nos  ojiprimat,  qui  Israel  viruin,  sive  mentem  vidcniem 
Deum  transtiilerunt :  nos  magis  Scripturae,  et  Angeli,  vel  Dei,  qui  ipsum  Israfl 
vocavit,  auctoritatc  duciniur,  ([uam  cujuslibet  eloquentiae  saecularis.'  No  iloubt 
the  crabbed  old  schnlar  was  bitting  hard,  according  to  his  custom,  some  definite 
writer  whom  he  wishes  to  extinguish  b}'  the  e[)itliet  '  saecularis.'  One  wishes  he 
had  given  his  name.  Perhaps  it  was  Eusebius  of  Caesarea.  In  his  comment  on 
Ilosea  xii.  12  he  accepts  the  interpretation  of  Israel  as  '  videntem  Deuni,'  Works, 
vol.  vi.  p.  142  ;  and  again  on  Nalium  ii.  2,  vol.  vi.  p.  551. 


478  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

God  the  Father  we  are  taught  by  many  proofs.  Among  which  is 
that  place  in  the  Gospel  {St.  Matt.  xxi.  '>j'^,  A  certain  man  planted 
a  vineyard,  &c.,  .  .  .  and,  presently,  He  sent  his  servants.  .  .  And, 
last  of  all,  he  sent  his  son.  And  again,  A  certain  man  made  a 
marriage  for  his  son.  Not  that  the  Son  is  excluded  from  reign- 
ing, of  Whom  Isaiah  wrote,  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne, 
high  and  lifted  vp  ;  but  that  in  the  Father  the  Son  reigns  also. 
.  .  .  And  in  Daniel  also  (vii.  9)  God  the  Father  is  brovight  in  as 
sitting,  and  the  Son  of  Man  is  brought  (offertur)  to  Him  that 
He  may  receive  the  Kingdom.  And  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John 
(iii.  21  ;  vii.  9,  10,  17)  the  same  things  are  written  of  the  Son.' 
What  the  '  many  proofs '  are  he  gives  us  no  idea ;  of  the  weight 
of  the  '  proofs '  alleged  the  reader  must  judge. 

(^)  On  the  Vision  of  the  Ma?i  with  the  line  of  fax,  and  the 
measuring  reed,  Ezek.  xl.  5,  &c.,  he  says  (vol.  v.  p.  465) :  '  It  is  He 
of  Whom  it  is  written,  Behold  the  man  Whose  name  is  the  Branch 
{Zech.  vi.  12).  .  .  He  stood  in  the  gate  because  through  Him  we 
enter  in  to  the  Father,  and  without  Him  we  cannot  enter  the 
City  of  God.  .  .  This  Man,  in  whose  hand  was  the  line,  .  . .  spake 
to  the  prophet.  He  who  spake  to  Ezekiel  was  the  True  Architect, 
Whom  Paul  the  Apostle  imitated.'  And  on  ver.  5  [Ihid.  p.  471), 
'  Whereby  it  is  clear  that  the  Lord  and  Saviour,  Who  is  the 
True  Architect,  proves  the  stones,  which  are  fit  to  be  placed  in 
the  foundations  of  the  temple,  which  in  the  middle  courses,  and 
which  in  the  upper.' 

6.  On  Laniel  iii.  49,  LXX.  and  Vulg.,  (vol.  v.  p.  641) :  'The 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  to  wit,  the  Divine  Word  comes  down,  and 
strikes  off  the  burning  heat  of  the  flame.'  And  on  iii.  25  (Lxx. 
Vulg.  92) :  '  The  appearance  of  the  fourth,  whom  he  calls  like  the 
Son  of  God,  we  must  take  either  for  an  angel,  as  the  Seventy 
have  rendered  it,  or  in  very  truth,  as  very  many  think,  for  the 
Lord  and  Saviour.  Yet  I  know  not  how  the  impious  King 
should  deserve  to  see  the  Son  of  God.  Wherefore,  after  Sym- 
machus,  who  renders,  The  appearance  of  the  fourth,  the  likeness  of 
sons,  not  of  God,  but  of  the  gods,  angels  are  to  be  understood,  who 
very  frequently  are  called  both  gods,  and  sons  of  gods,  or  of  God. 
This  according  to  the  history  [i.e.  the  literal  primary  narrative 


NOTE  VII.]  Si.  Jerome.  479 

sense].  But  in  type  this  angel,  or  Son  of  God,  prefigures  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  ^' 

{U)  On  vii.  9  {Ib'ul.  p.  668),  /  beheld  till  the  thrones  were  set,  and 
the  Jncient  of  days  did  sit :  '  The  many  thrones  which  Daniel  saw 
seem  to  me  the  same  as  John  speaks  of  as  the  fo?ir  and  twenty 
thrones ;  while  the  Ancient  of  days  is  He  Who  in  John  sits  alone 
upon  the  throne.  Also  the  Son  of  Man,  Who  came  to  the  Ancient 
of  days  is  He  Who  by  John  is  called  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah.  .  .  God  is  spoken  of  as  seated,  and  as  the  Ancient  of  days, 
that  the  bearing  (habitus)  of  the  Eternal  Judge  may  be  shown 
forth.'     [But  this  would  rather  point  to  the  Son.] 

(c)  On  viii.  16,  17  (^ibid.  p.  676) :  'The  Jews  suppose  the  tnan 
who  commanded  Gabriel  to  make  Daniel  understand  the  vision  to 
be  Michael.' 

{d)  On  xii.  5,  &c.,  he  takes  the  two  angels  on  the  river  banks 
for  the  guardian  angels  of  the  Persians  and  of  the  Greeks,  and 
the  man  clothed  in  linen,  which  was  upon  the  loaters  of  the  river,  for 
'  that  most  merciful  angel '  whom  'he  had  seen  at  the  beginning, 
clothed  in  linen '  (x.  5),  who  '  had  offered  the  prayers  of  Daniel 
in  the  sight  of  God,  when  the  angel  of  the  Persians  withstood 
him  one  and  twenty  days^  (x.  13,  which  see,  as  showing  that  it 
was  not  Michael,  and  so  must  have  been  the  divine  Angel  of  the 
Lord.  St.  Jerome  in  his  Comment,  on  ch.  x.  distinguishes  him 
of  course  from  Michael ;  but  his  language,  on  the  whole,  implies 
that  he  thought  him  a  created  angel). 

7.  His  Commentary  on  Zechariah  (vol.  vi.  p.  775,  &c.,  Migne, 
col.  14 1 7,  &c.)  is  curiously  interesting  from  his  careful  contrast 
throughout  of  the  Christian  interpretation  with  that  which  he 
had  learned  from  his  Jewish  instructors  ('  a  quibus  (he  says)  in 
Veteri  Testamento  eruditi  sumus '),  who  only  saw  St.  Michael 
where  the  Church  sees  her  Lord.  Space  forbids  a  sufficient 
analysis.     The  student  must  examine  it  for  himself. 

8.  On  Malachi  iii.  i  (vol.  vi.  p.  20)  he  takes  Christ  to  be  the 
speaker  ;  '  Behold,  I  send  My  messenger,  &c.,  is  said  in  the  person 

*  He  adds,  '(|ni  ad  fornacem  descendit  infemi,  in  quo  clausae,  et  peccatorum  et 
justorum  anirnae  tenebantur,  ut  absque  exustionc,  et  noxa  sui  eos  qui  tenebantur 
inclusi  mortis  vinculia  liberaret.' 


480  The   Theophmiies.  [app. 

of  Christ,  that  He  sent  John  in  the  wilderness  of  Judaea  to 
preach,  &c.  .  .  .  but  what  follows.  And  the  Lord,  Whom  ye  seek, 
&e.,  He  speaks  of  Himself  as  of  another,  accordini^  to  the 
custom  of  the  Scriptures,  And  none  doubts  that  that  Lord. 
is  the  Saviour,  Who  is  the  Creator  of  all,  and  is  called  the  Angel 
of  the  Covenant,  and  the  Angel  of  the  great  counsel^ 

XVI.  St.  Augustine.  Born  a.d.  354;  baptized,  387;  Bishop 
of  Hippo,  395  ;  died,  430.  I  have  already,  in  Lect.  IV.  §  90, 
described  the  novel  attitude  taken  up  on  this  subject  by  this 
g-reat  and  too  influential  writer;  and  need  only  now  refer  the 
student  to  the  numerous  passages,  often  too  lengthy  to  quote, 
which  bear  upon  it.  The  fullest  and  most  important  will  be 
found  in  his  Sermons  Be  8crq:)turis,  V.  VI.  and  VII.  (Works, 
vol.  V.  col.  57-66) ;  in  his  Answer  to  Maximin  the  Ar'ian  Bishop 
(vol.  viii.  col.  743,  &c.),  Book  I.  iii.  and  xv.,  and  II.  ix.  and 
xxvi^;  and  in  the  Be  Trinitate  (vol.  viii.  col.  815,  &c.). 
Book  II.  chs.  V.  to  the  end,  and  III.  Prooem.  and  chap,  i.,  where 
II.  xvii.  3a  and  xviii.  35,  with  Prooem.  3,  seem  to  supply  a 
summary  expression  of  his  matured  opinion.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that  the  two  books  Against  Maximin  were  among*  his 
latest  works,  having  been  written  about  427,  and  after  his 
Betractations,  while  the  Be  Trinitate  occupied  him  from  about 
400  to  about  412  or  413. 

The  points  to  be  noted  are,  on  the  whole,  That  his  language 
bears  witness  to  the  existence  of  the  earlier,  and,  as  I  humbly 
believe  -,  the  truer  view  ^ ;  That  he  clearly  shows  how  his  own 

*  The  student  who  wishes  to  understand  the  Arianism  with  which  the  Western 
Church  of  St.  Augustine's  day  had  to  contend  would  find  himself  repaid  by  the 
study  of  the  Sermo  Arianormn  (vol.  viii.  col.  678),  with  his  answer  to  it;  and 
of  his  Epidles  170,  238-242,  in  volume  ii. ;  of  the  Tractates  on  St.  John's  Gospel 
(in  vol.  iii.),  Nos.  18,  20,  36,  37,  59,  and  71 ;  and  of  Sermons  52,  117,  118,  139, 
140,  341,  and  384. 

^  On  the  threefold  ground  of,  The  plain  sense  of  the  Hebrew  Text,  The  con- 
sensus of  the  Primitive  Church,  and.  The  deep  inner  consonance  with  the  revealed 
Office  and  Function  of  the  Eternal  Son. 

^  E.g.  in  Sermon  VII.  §§3  and  6,  on  Exod.  iii.  (Migne's  ed.  vol.  v.  col.  64), 
where,  speaking  of  the  two  views,  he  admits,  '  quarum  quaelibet  vera  sit,  ambae 
secundum  fidem  sunt;'  and  Tractates  on  St.  John,  liii.  12,  on  John  xii.  37-43 
(vol.  iii.  col.  1779),  that  Moses  and  Isaiah  saw  the  Lord  Christ,  though  not  '  sicuti 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Attgustme.  481 

opinion  was  influenced  by  the  dread  of  Arianism  and  of  its  abuse 
of  the  earlier  belief  of  the  Apparitions  of  the  Son  of  God  ^ ;  and. 
That  his  if^noranee  of  Hebrew,  and  his  dependence,  practically, 
on  inaccurate  Latin  Versions  of  the  Greek  Versions,  of  which, 
until  they  were  superseded  by  the  labours  of  St.  Jerome,  there 
were  only  too  many  in  circulation,  really  disabled  him  from 
dealing-  closely  with  the  Old  Testament,  and,  as  his  comments 
nearly  always  show,  prevented  his  seeinjj^  the  full  force  of  the 
Bible  narratives  of  the  Theophanies  ^. 

The  Arian  fallacy  was,  That  as  the  Son  of  God  was,  ad- 
mittedly, •  sent,'  and  '  appeared,'  therefore  He  was  '  visibilis  per 
suam  substantiam,'  and  therefore  of  a  '  Substance  '  inferior  to  the 
Father,  i.  e.  in  His  pre-existent  as  well  as  in  His  Incarnate 
Nature.  To  this  St.  Augustine  rig-htly  answered.  That  the  Son 
is  not  '  visibilis  per  suam  substantiam,' — if  He  were,  Moses  had 
not  needed  after  he  had  seen  Him  and  heard  Him,  to  ask,  SJioio 
me  Thy  (jlurij ; — That  the  Divine  Nature  is  essentially,  in  Itself, 
invisible;  and  equally  so,  of  course,  in  all  Three  Persons;  That 
God  manifested  His  Presence  on  occasion,  only  '  per  subjectara 


est,'  adding,  '  Ostendit  ergo  se,  etiam  antequam  susciperet  carnem,  oculis  liomi- 
num,  sicut  voluit,  in  subjecta  sibi  creatura,  non  sicuti  est.' 

'  See  esp.  §  4  of  Sei-inon  VII. ;  Anstver  to  Maxindn.  II.  xxvi. ;  Be  Trin.  II.  ix. 
15,  and  XV.  25.  '  Filium  Dei  delirantes  haerotici  in  sua  substantia  visum  volunt; ' 
and  xvi.  27  :  'A  miseris  creditus  est,  non  per  creaturam,  sed  per  seipsum  visibilis 
Filius  Dei ; '  and,  ihid. :  '  Stulti  qui  putant  per  ea  quae  supra  dicta  vel  gesta  sunt, 
substantiam  Dei  oculis  ejus  [Moysis]  fuisse  conspicuara.' 

*  E.g.  in  Quaest.  in  Heptateuch  am,  XCI.  (vol.  iii.  p.  630)  he  takes  the  pro- 
mised Angel  in  the  great  passage,  E.cod.  xxiii.  20,  to  be  Joshua  '  who  brought  in 
the  people  into  the  land  of  promise  ;'  ibid.  XCIX.  p.  632,  he  comments  on  his  Latin 
version  of  the  LXX.  misrendering,  viderimt  locum  ubi  steterat  ihi  Dens  Israel, 
where  the  Heb.  has  They  saw  the  God  of  Israel.  Similarly  De  Tnn.  II.  xv.  25. 
In  Serrnonyil.  (vol.  v.  p.  65),  'Dixit  et  propheta,  Audiam  quid  loquetur  [in  me] 
Dominus  Deus  {Psal.  Ixxxv.  q).  Qui  loquitur  in  homine,  loquitur  in  angelo. 
Idea  apparuit  Moysi  angelus  Domini,  et  dixit  Eijo  sum  qui  sum.  Habitatoris  vox 
est,  non  templi.'  But  the  words  in  me  are  not  in  the  Hebrew.  De  Triii.  II.  x.  19 
furnishes  an  example  of  the  misleading  weakening  of  the  narrative  by  tlie  render- 
ing of  both  mrr  and  '^tx  by  Kvpio's  only  in  the  LXX.  and  Dominus  only  in 
the  Latin.  In  De  Trin.  II.  xviii.  34  (vol,  viii.  p.  868)  he  finds  it  jiossible  to  write, 
on  Visus  est  Dominus  Abrahae,  '  non  unus  aut  duo  sed  tres  apparuerunt  viri, 
quorum  tiullus  exceisius  aliis  eminuisse  dictus  est,  nullus  honoratius  effulsisse, 
nullus  imperiosius  egiase.* 

I  i 


482  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

creaturam '  ; '  and  added,  that  God  Who  so  manifested  Himself 
might  be  any  one  of  the  Three  Divine  Persons,  or  even  '  tota 
Trinitas '  as  One. 

The  questions  at  issue  are,  [a)  As  to  this  last  idea,  and  (Ij) 
Whether  the  '  suBjecta  ereatura,'  when  not  an  inanimate  material 
thing-,  as  the  Fire,  or  the  Cloud,  but  an,  apparently,  human  or 
angelic  being,  was  a  separate  personal  entity  or  not.  As  to 
(fl).  Abstractedly,  we  may  admit  it  conceivable,  as,  of  course, 
within  the  Divine  Power.  The  question  is.  Whether  to  think 
so  of  the  Father  or  the  Spirit  is  consistent  with  the  revealed 
principles  of  the  Divine  Economy  towards  Man,  and  especially 
with  the  great  underlying  principle,  That  all  Manifestation  is 
through  the  Son,  whether  to  eye  as  the  Image,  or  to  ear  as  the 
Word;  and,  again,  Whether  to  think  so  does  not,  in  the  end, 
create  some  fresh  and  needless  difficulties,  and  more  than  it 
removes'-^  (if  indeed  there  be    any  real   difficulty   which  needs 

^  E.g.  Quaest.  in  Heptateuchum,  Lib.  II.  ci.  (vol.  iii.  p.  632):  *■  Quod  ergo  se 
ostendit  specie  corporal!  vel  signis  corporaliter  expressis,  non  substantia  ejus 
apparet,  qua  est  ipse  quod  est,  sed  assumptio  formarum  visibiliura  ejus  omnipo- 
tentiae  subjacet.'  This  language  is  entirely  consistent  with  the  earlier  viewj  if 
not,  indeed,  exclusively  so,  yet  more  so  than  the  supposition  of  a  created  angel 
(whether  always  t'.ie  same,  e.  g.  St.  Michael,  or  different  on  different  occasions) ; 
because  it  equally  covers  the  appearances  in  the  Fire  and  in  the  Cloud,  and  in 
human  or  angelic  form,  as  all  equally  in  themselves  impersonal  and  only  tempo- 
rarily assumed,  the  speaking  and  acting  Personality  being  all  the  while  ex- 
clusively that  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  later  view  involves  a  needless  difficulty 
because  of  the  abiding  personality  of  the  (supposed)  created  angel  in  or  through 
whom  God  manifested  Himself.  Also  Contra  Maximin.  I.  xv.  and  II.  xxvi.  §§  lo 
and  12  (vol.  viii.  p.  811),  'per  subjectam  sibi  creaturam.'  And  De  Trin.  II.  v. 
10  :  '  Apparuit  foris  in  ereatura  corporali,  qui  intus  in  natura  spirituali  oculis 
mortalium  semper  occultus  est ; '  and,  ibid.  vii.  12:'  lUae  species  corporales  ad 
demonstrandum  quod  opus  fuit  ad  tempus  apparuerunt,  et  postea  destiterunt ; '  and, 
ibid.  ix.  16,  'per  subjectam  suae  potestati  corpoream  creaturam j'  and,  ibid.  x. 
17;  xiv.  24 ;  XV.  26.  In  Tractat.  on  St.  John's  Gospel,  iii.  17, 18  (vol.  iii.  p.  1403) 
he  says,  '  Moyses  vidit  nubem,  vidit  angelum,  vidit  ignem ;  omnis  ilia  creaturq, 
est;  typum  Domini  sui  gerebat,  non  ipsius  Domini  praesentiam  e.xhibebat  .... 
Loquebatur  cum  Moyse  Angelus,  portans  typum  Domini  ....  Facta  sunt  ilia 
visibilia  corporaliter  per  creaturam,  in  quibus  typus  ostenderetur  :  non  utique 
substantia  ipsa  demonstrabatur  et  raanifestabatur.' 

'■^  E.  g.  the  Saint  himself  is  evidently  conscious  {Sermon  VII.)  that,  if  the 
Divine  Presenca  in  the  three  '  men '  (equal  created  angels,  as  he  supposes)  who 
visited  Abraham  is  indicative  of  a  Trinity  of  Equal  Persons  in  One  Nature,  so  the 
visit  of  two  to  Lot  might  be  taken  to  intimate  a  'dualitatem.' 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Augustine.  483 

removal) ;  whether,  indeed,  it  does  not  end,  not  so  much  in 
guarding  the  true  equal  Consuhstantial  Godhead  of  the  Son,  as 
in  risking  the  lowering  the  whole  conception  of  the  Godhead, 
as  e.  g.  in  the  thought  which  (needlessly,  as  I  humbly  think  ^) 
St.  Augustine  admits,  that  the  '  Antiquus  dierum'  oi  Daniel  vii. 
9  was  a  visible  Appearance  of  the  Eternal  Father. 

As  to  (3),  May  it  not  be  said  that,  the  INIanifestation  con- 
fessedly being  '  per  subjectam  creaturam,'  it  is  easier,  more 
natural,  and  more  consistent  to  suppose  the  '  subjecta  creatura,' 
the  '  visibilis  species,'  to  have  had,  in  every  instance,  and  not 
merely  in  the  instances  of  the  Fire  or  the  Cloud,  no  personality 
of  its  own,  but  to  have  been  merely  the  temporary  vehicle  and 
medium  of  the  visible  and  audible  manifestation  of  the  Son  of 
God,  Whose  One  Divine  Personality  was  behind  it  and  operated 
through  it,  than  to  suppose  that  the  Appearance,  when  intro- 
duced as  angelic  or  human,  was,  immediately,  that  of  a  creature 
angel,  with  distinct — and  so,  of  course,  permanent — personality 
of  his  own,  and  only  mediately  an  Appearance  of  a  Divine 
Person  ?  Not  to  mention  the  further  difficulty  that,  in  the  cases 
where  the  Appearance  is  introduced  as  human  in  outer  aspect, 
it  must  still  be  held  to  be  angelic  (for  no  one  supposes  a  human 
personality  was  ever  so  employed),  and  so  to  involve  the  cum- 
brous hypothesis  of  a  merely  apparent  humanity  covering  an 
angelic  reality,  behind  which  again  is  the  Divine  Personality. 

St.  Augustine  admits  that  the  Father  is  never  spoken  of  as 
'  sent.'  The  Son,  of  course,  is  constantly  so  spoken  of.  To 
Him,  therefore,  the  title  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  is  entirely 
appropriate.  But  the  hypothesis  that  the  unique  Being  so  spoken 
of  througliout  the  Old  Testament  was  a  created  angel,  in  whom, 
as  in  a  temple,  God  temporarily  dwelt,  and  through  whom  God 
sjioke,  as  He  spake  by  the  Prophets  who  said  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,  does  not  ^tisfy  the  language  of  Holy  Scri})ture  ;  for  the 
utterances  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  are  clearly  wholly  distinct 
in  form  from  those  of  the  inspired  Prophets.  They  spoke  indeed 
in  the  name  of  God,  but  never  as  God,  i.e.  in  the  Person  of 
God,  as  the  Angel  does. 

1  See  Lecture  IV.  §  lo;,  p.  217. 
I  i  2 


484  The  Theophanies.  [app. 

The  passages  in  St.  Augustine  which  bear  on  specific  Theo- 
phanies are  the  following  :  To  Abraham  and  Lot,  8erm.  VII. 
(vol.  V.  col.  65),  Qziaest.  in  Heptateuch.  I.  xxxvii-xliii.  (vol.  iii. 
col.  558),  Be  Civifat.  Bel,  XVI.  xxix.  (vol.  vii.  col.  508),  Cont. 
Max.  II.  5  (vol.  viii.  col.  806)  ;  To  Jacob,  Enarr.  in  Psalm,  cxlvii, 
27  (vol,  iv.  col.  1936)^  Serm.  V.  (vol.  v.  col.  57),  Ser7n.  CXXII. 
(alias,  Be  Verbis  Bornini  xl.  vol.  v.  col.  681),  Cont.  Max.  II.  9 
(vol.  viii.  col.  810) ;  To  Moses,  Enarr.  in  Psal.  cxxxviii.  8  (vol.  iv. 
col.  1788),  Serm.  VI.  and  VII.  (vol.  v.  col.  59),  Serm.  XXIV.  cap. 
xiv.  (vdl.  v.  col.  161),  Cont.  Max.  II.  11  (vol.  viii.  col.  812);  To 
Joshua,  Quaest.  in  Hept.  VI.  vii.  (vol.  iii.  col.  778);  To  Gideon, 
Ibid.  VII.  xxxi.  &c.  (col.  802) ;  To  Manoah,  Ibid.  li.  (col.  822). 

XVII.  At  this  point  may  be  added  a  very  interesting  testi- 
mony to  the  prevalence  in  the  West  of  the  older  view  of  the 
Theophanies,  even  in  St.  Augustine's  own  day.  It  is  that  of  the 
great  Christian  Latin  poet  Phudentius,  who  was  born  in  Spain 
in  A.D.  348,  and  lived  on  into  the  early  years  of  the  fifth  century. 
In  the  first  part  of  his  poem  entitled  Ajpotheosis,  on  the  Godhead 
of  the  Son,  he  is  arguing  especially  against  the  Sabellian  con- 
fusion of  the  Divine  Persons.     At  line  22  he  says, — 

'  Quisque  hominum  vidisse  Deum  memoratur,  ab  ipso 
Infusum  vidit  gnatum  :    nam  Filius  hoc  est. 
Quod  de  Patre  micans  se  praestitit  inspiciendum 
Per  species,  quas  possit  homo  comprendere  visu.  25 

Nam  mera  niajestas  est  infinita,  nee  intrat 
Obtutus,  aliquo  ni  se  moderamine  format. 
Hoc  vidit  princeps  geuerosi  seminis  Abram, 
Jam  tunc  dignati  terras  iuvisere  Christi 

Hospes  homo,  in  triplicem  numen  radiasse  figuram.  30 

Hoc  conluctantis  tractaruut  brachia  Jacob. 
Ipse  dator  legis  divinae  accedere  coram 
Jussus,  amicitiae  collate  qui  stetit  ore 
Comminus,  et  sacris  conjunxit  verba  loquelis 
Carnis  in  effigie  Christum  se  cernere  seusit.'  35 

Again,  line  43  : — 

*  Quid  apertius,  absque  aliena 
Quam  sumat  facie,  Verbum  non  po£se  videri  % 


NOTE  VII.]  Pnidentius.  485 

Posse  tamcn,  quum  nialit  idem,  numquani  Patre  viso  45 

Terrenis  oculis,  habitu  se  ostendere  nostro  : 

Saepe  et  in  angelicas  vel  moi-tales  moderatum 

Induci  species,  queat  ut  sub  imagine  cerni. 

Hoc  Verbum  est,  quod  vibratum  Patris  ore  benigno 

Sumsit  virginco  fragilem  de  corpore  formam.  50 

Inde  figura  hominis  nondum  sub  carne,  Moysi 

Objecta,  effigiem  nostri  signaverat  oris 

Quod  quandoque  Deus  Verbi  virtute  coactum 

Sumturus  corpus,  faciem  referebat  eandem.'  54 

And  line  71  : — 

'  Ergo  nihil  visum,  nisi  quod  sub  carne  videndum 
Lumen,  Imago  Dei,  Verbum  Deus,  et  Deus  ignis ; 
Qui  scutum  nostri  peccamen  corporis  implet. 
Nam  lucis  Genitor,  Verbi  sator,  auctor  et  ignis, 
Creditur  extra  oculos ;    ut  Apostolus  edocet  auctor,  75 

Qui  negat  intuitu  fontem  deitatis  adiri. 
Credite,  nemo  Deum  vidit,  mihi  credite,  nemo. 
Visibilis  de  fonte  Deus,  non  ipse  Dei  fons 
Visibilis.     Cerni  potis  est  qui  nascitur,  at  non 
Innatus  cerni  potis  est.     Latet  os  Patris  illud,  80 

Unde  Deus :    qui  visibilem  se  praestitit  olim. 
Tale  aliquid  fornums  in  sese,  quale  secuta  est 
Passio,  quae  corpus  sibi  vindicat ;    ardua  nam  vis 
Est  impassibilis.' 

Again,  line  128  : — 

'  Quem  si  perspicuum  mortalibus  infitiaris. 
Fare  age,  quem  videat  Babylonis  ab  arce  tyrannus 
Innocuas  inter  flammas  procul  exspatiantem. 

Filius  ille  Dei  est.  .  .  . 

Filius  (baud  dubium  est)  agit  haec  miracula  rerum  ; 

Quem  video  :    Deus  ipse,  Dei  certissima  proles.  1 39 

.  .  .  Semper  in  auxilium  Sermo  Patris  Omnipotentis  155 

Descendit  servaudo  homini :    mortalia  semper 

Adraiscenda  sibi  proprio  curavit  amore  : 

Ut  socianda  caro,  Dominoque  implcnda  perenni, 

Degenerem  vitam,  quae  tunc  animalis  agebat, 


486  The  Theophanies.     Prudentius.  [ait. 

Exemplo  mutaret  hcri,  similesque  per  artus  160 

Cernere  consoi-tem  terreni  adsuesceret  oris ; 
Participemque  suum  visu  velut  obside  nosse, 
Et  consanguineo  paullatim  accedere  Christo.' 

Again,  line  300,  of  God  speaking  to  Moses : — 

*  Coram  proditus  ipse, 
Ipse  Deus,  trepidum  mortalem  mitis  amico 
Inbuit  adloquio,  seque  ac  sua  summa  retexit. 
Nimirum  meminit  Scriptor  doctissimus,  illo 
Oibis  principio  non  solum  nee  sine  Chi'isto 
Informasse  Patrem  facturae  plasma  novellae  : 
Fecit,  ait,  condens  hominem  Deus,  et  dedit  olli  305 

Ora  Dei,  quidnam  est  aliud,  quam  dicere,  solus 
Non  erat  %   atqiie  Deo  Deus  adsistebat  agenti, 
Quum  Dominus  faceret  Domini  sub  imagine  plasma  ! 
Cbristus  forma  Patris,  nos  Christi  forma  et  imago, 
Condimur  in  faciem  Domini  bonitate  paterna,  310 

Venture  in  nostram  faciem  post  saecula  Christo. 
Possum  multa  sacris  exempla  excerpere  libris, 
Ni  refugis,  quae  te  doceant,  non  in  Patre  solo 
Vim  majestatis  positam,  sed  cum  Patre  Christum 
Esse  Deum  :   velut  illud  ait  Genealogus  idem  :  315 

"  A  Domino  Dominus  flammam  pluit  in  Sodomitas." 
Quis  Dominus  %     De  quo  Domino  %    si  solus  ab  arce 
Siderea  spectat  Pater,  aut  ardescit  in  iras  % 
Filius  armatam  Domini  Patris  ignibus  iram 
Spargebat  Dominus:    sunt  unum  fulmen  utraque.'  320 

XVIII.  St.  Leo  the  Great,  Bishop  of  Rome,  a.d.  440-461, 
who,  '  as  a  preacher  and  writer,  may  be  said  to  have  lived  in  the 
light  of  the  Incarnation  ^,'  has  many  valuable  passages  on  the 
general  preparatory  character  of  the  earlier  Dispensations,  their 
ordinances  and  incidents,  as  significative  of  the  future  Incarna- 
tion and  Passion  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  two  following  bear 
more  particularly  on  the  subject  of  this  note. 

*  Preface  to  translated  Sermons  of  St.  Leo  on  the  Incarnation,  by  the  Eev.  Canon 
Bright.  See  also  tlie  full  article  on  St.  Leo,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography,  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Gore,  Vice-Principal  of  Cuddesdon. 


NOTE  VII.]  SL  Leo  the  Great.  487 

1.  As  to  the  general  pre-cxistent  operations  of  the  Son,  8erm. 
XXV.  iv.  (vol.  i.  85,  Migne  210),  '  For  although^  even  in  former 
ages,  the  light  of  truth  was  sent  forth  for  the  illumination  of 
the  holy  fathers  and  prophets,  as  David  says  ;  0  send  forth  Thij 
light  and  Thy  truth  {Vs.  xliii.  3),  and  in  divers  manners,  and  by 
many  signs,  the  Godhead  of  the  Son  declared  the  works  of  Its 
presence  ;  yet  all  those  significant  things  and  all  those  wonders 
were  testimonies  to  that  Mission  whereof  the  Apostle  speaks. 
But  when  the  fulness  of  time  ivas  come,  God  sent  forth  His  Son,'  &c. 
(Gal.  iv.  4.) 

2.  Contrasting  the  Incarnation  with  the  Theophanies,  Epist. 
XXI.  ii.  (vol.  i.  855,  Migne  791),  '  Of  course  the  Almightiness  of 
the  Son  of  God  might  have  appeared  for  the  instruction  and 
justification  of  men  in  such  wise  as  to  both  the  patriarchs  and  the 
prophets  He  did  appear,  in  the  semblance  (specie)  of  flesh  ;  as 
when  He  wrestled  [Gen.  xxxii.  24),  or  joined  in  converse,  or  as 
when  He  did  not  decline  the  courtesies  of  hospitality,  or  even 
partook  of  food  placed  before  Him  {^Gen.  xviii).  But  these  out- 
ward semblance  (imagines)  were  tokens  (indices)  of  this  Manhood 
whose  reality  these  mystic  significant  events  announced  should 
be  assumed  of  the  stock  of  the  fathers  that  went  before.  And 
thus  that  mystery  (sacramentum)  of  our  reconciliation  which 
was  determined  before  eternal  times  ^  was  fulfilled  by  no  mere 
figures,  because  the  Holy  Ghost  had  not  yet  come  upon  the 
Virgin,  nor  the  Power  of  the  Highest  overshadowed  her  ;  that 
within  her  undefiled  womb,  JFisdom  might  huild  her  house  [Prov. 
ix.  1),  and  the  Word  be  made  Jlesh  {St.  John  i.  14),  and  by  the 
meeting  of  the  form  of  God  and  the  form  of  a  servoMt  in  one  Person 
the  Creator  of  times  might  be  born  in  time,  and  He  through 
Whom  all  thing's  were  made  mio-ht  Himself  be  brought  forth  as 
part  of  all  things  (inter  omnia  gigneretur).' 

XIX.  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  Bishop  of  Rome  from  a.d. 
590-604,  shows  on  this  subject,  as  might  be  expected,  strong 
traces  of  the  influence  of  St.  Augustine  -.     Indeed,  though  he 

^  'Ante  tempora  aeterna.'  He  is  evidently  quoting  the  wpi  ypdvoiv  aluviaiv  (Vulg. 
ante  tempora  saecularia)  of  2  Tim.  ii.  9,  though  the  Balleriui  (in  Migne)  do  not 
print  the  phrase  as  a  quotation,  nor  give  the  reference. 

"  The  Benedictines'  Life  of  St.  Greg.,  Bk.  IV.  iv.  2,  speaks  of  the  '  Doctrina 


488     The  Theophanies.     St.  Gregoiy  the  Great,    [app. 

speaks  of  Abraham  and  of  Moses  as  '  talking-  with  God,'  and  of 
Isaiah  as  'eumdeni  Dominum  contemplatus^,'  he  seems  to  have 
no  thought  but  of  created  angels  as  the  actual  speakers  in  the 
Theophanies-.  His  comments  have  but  little  independent  value, 
since  his  ignorance  of  Hebrew  and  Greek  made  him  entirely 
dependent  on  the  Latin  Versions^.  Yet  the  student  should  look 
at  his  exposition  of /oZ^  xxviii.  12,  Where  shall  wisdom  he  found, 
&c.,  Moral,  in  Job,  Lib.  XVIII.  cap.  liv.  [3Iigne,  vol.  ii.  col.  600 
(91),  and  at  his  full  discussion  of  the  Wai/s  in  which  God  speahs  to 
man,  Hid.  Lib,  XXVIII.  cap.  i.  (ii.  893  (447)  on  Job  xxxviii.  i  ^. 
His  comments  on  the  Appearance  to  Moses  at  the  Bush  may 
be  seen  in  Moral.  XXVIII.  i.  8  (vol.  ii.  895,  Migne  450),  and 
Homil.  in  Ezechiel.  Lib.  I.  Homil.  vii,  10.  In  this  latter  work 
he  devotes  eight  Homilies  to  the  exposition  of  Ezeh.  i.,  explaining", 
on  ver.  0,6,  the  likeness  of  the  appearance  of  a  man,  seen  upon  the 

Augustiniana,  quam  ipse  sitibuBdus  liauserat  et  inebriatus  eructabat.'  See  also 
his  own  opening  of  his  Horn,  in  Ezechiel. 

*  Horn,  in  Ezelc.  I.  viii.  19  ;  Regul.  Pastoral.  II.  vii. 

^  This  gets  him  into  the  difficulty  of  having  to  account  for  their  acceptance  of 
worship,  as,  e.g.  from  Abraham,  Lot,  and  Joshua,  while  in  liev.  xix.  lo,  xxii.  9, 
they  expressly  forbid  it.  He  meets  the  difficulty,  in  two  places,  Moral.  XXVII.  xv. 
29,  and  XL.  Homil.  in  Evan.  Lib.  I.  Homil.  viii.,  not  by  saying  that  the  worship 
was  offered  to  God  in  the  angel,  not  by  any  distinction  of  degrees  of  worship,  but 
by  frankly  saying  that  under  the  Old  Covenant  the  angels  '  aequanimiter  se  con- 
cedebant  adorari,'  because  they  despised  man  as  'carualibus  corruptionibus  de- 
ditum,  nee  ab  eisdem  carnalibus  corruptionibus  redemptum,'  and  so  as  '  weak  and 
abject ;  but  that  afterwards  they  were  afraid  to  do  so,  when  they  saw  the  height 
to  which  Human  Nature  is  raised  in  Christ.'  Does  this  idea  account  for  the 
language  of  the  old  hymn,  placed  by  Daniel,  Thesanr.  Hyninol.  vol.  i.  p.  191, 
No.  162,  among  Hymns  of  unknown  authorship  written  'circa  saec.  vi-ix.,'  '  Tre- 
mentes  vident  angeli  Versa  vice  mortalium:  Culpat  caro,  purgat  caro,  Eegnat 
Deus  Dei  caro,'  '  In  awe  and  wonder  angels  see,  How  changed  is  man's  estate 
by  Thee,' &c.? 

^  Benedictin.  Praefat.  Gen.  xviii. 

*  Here  he  even  declares  the  Father's  voice  from  heaven,  St.  John  xii.  28,  to 
have  been  uttered  'per  angelum,'  and  '  rationali  creatura  administrante' ;  and 
blunders  curiously  in  his  reference  to  the  passage, '  Dicente  Domino,  Pater,  clarifica 
Filinm  tuum,  ut  et  Filiuii  taus  clarified  te  \_St.  John  xvii.  i],  protinus  respondetur  : 
Clarificavi,  et  iterum  clarijlcaho '  [xii.  28].  Towards  the  close  of  this  chapter  he  says, 
'  Scriptura  Sacra  nunquaui  Patrem,  nunquam  Spiritum  Sanctum,  et  nonnisi  per 
incarnationis  suae  praedicationem  Filium,  angelum  vocat.'  So  Moral,  in  Job  XI. 
xii.  19  (I.  373,  Migne  962)  he  restricts  tlie  title  'Magni  consilii  angelus'  to  the 
Lord  as  Incarnate. 


NOTE  VII.]         S/.  Basil.     St.  Chrysostom.  489 

likeness  of  ihe  throne,  of  our  Lord,  Who  (he  says)  is  the  '  firma- 
mentum-'  above  the  'animalia'  (i.e.  in  His  earthly  life,  the  first 
stage  of  His  Incarnate  life),  while  the  'thrones'  (Ezekiel  says 
throne)  are  the  hig-hest  rank  of  the  '  Virtutes  ang-elicae,'  quoting- 
Co*?,  i.  16,  above  vi'hom,  though  '  potestates  Deo  proximas,' 
'  elevatus  est  Mediator  Dei  et  hominum  homo  Christus  Jesus,' 
in  His  glorified,  risen,  and  ascended  life.  Addressing  himself 
{^Ih'id.  Lib.  I.  Homil.  viii.  31)  to  the  question  how  St.  John  (xii. 
41)  says  Isaiah  saw  the  glory  of  Christ,  while  Ezekiel  saw  'non 
gloriara,  sed  gloriae  similitudinem,'  he  says  that  St.  John  had 
been  just  speaking  of  Christ's  miracles  as  manifesting  on  earth 
a  certain  glory  '  in  factis,'  or  '  in  rebus,'  which  it  is  possible  for 
man  to  see,  and  which,  accordingly,  Isaiah  saw  ;  while  of  the  glory 
'  in  coelo,  sicuti  est  .  .  .  in  semetipso,'  Ezekiel  could,  of  course, 
only  see  the  '  similitudo.'  But  the  language  of  the  Bible  will 
hardly  bear  this  distinction  between  the  two  visions.  Surely 
Isaiah's  was  as  'heavenly'  as  Ezekiel's,  though  neither  was  of 
God  'sicuti  est;'  as  the  human  appearance  shows.  On  Ezeh.  xl. 
(Homil.  in  Ez.  II.  i.)  he  explains  the  Man  Whose  appearance  teas 
like  the  appearance  of  brass  of  Christ  as  Incarnate. 

XX.  Before  passing  to  later  writers  of  Latin  Christendom 
we  may  note  two  passages  from  the  Greek  writers  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  fourth  century. 

1.  St.  Basil  the  Great,  Bishop  of  the  Cappadocian  Caesarea 
A.D.  370-379,  writes,  on  the  Angel  who  appeared  to  Moses  at 
the  Bush,  Tt?  ovv  6  avrbs  koI  ayyeKos  Koi  Qeos ;  apa  ovxc  Trepi  ov 
}Xi\xaOi]Kafxa> ,  ort  KaKa.Tai  to  oi'o\xa  amov  MeyaAr/s  /3oi;\7/?  ayyeXos ', 
.  .  .  "flare  koL  6  e-l  tov  Mcocrea)?  ovra  kavrbv  uvoixaaas,  ovk.  aAAo?  Tts 
irapa  tov  Qeov  Aoyov  tov  iv  apxfl  ovra  irpos  tup  Qeov  vorfitir].  Contra 
Eunomium,  11.  J  8,  Op.  Tom.  i.  p.  253. 

2.  St.  Chrysostom,  Bishop  of  Constantinople  a.d.  398-407,  of 
whose  commentaries  on  the  Old  Testament  only  some  small  por- 
tions have  come  down  to  us,  whites  On  Gew^s/.?,  Homily  xlii.,  'E2'  ti] 
(yKi]in]  TOV  ^Aftpaap.  Kal  ot  ayyeXot  KOt  6  TovTOiV  AeaTTor?;?  Kara  tuvtov 
co(f)Oi]aat'.  Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  598.     See  also  Hom.  xvi.  in  Actt.  Apost. 

XXI.  In  the  later  Latin  Church  the  Augustinian  view  pre- 
vailed, as  was  to  be  expected ;    but  not  exclusively.     Aquinas 


490      ^^^  Theophanies.     Later  Latin  Writers,     [app. 

writes,  '  Hoc  autem  quod  Ang-eli  corpora  assumpserunt  in 
Veteri  Testamento,  fuit  quoddam  figurale  indicium  quod  Ver- 
bum  Dei  assumpturum  asset  corpus  humanum.  Omues  enim 
apparitiones  Veteris  Testamenti,  ad  illam  apparitionem  ordinatae 
fuerunt,  qua  Filius  Dei  apparuit  in  carne.'  Siimmae  I.  Quaest.  li. 
Art.  2.  And  to  the  same  effect  Siimmae  III.  Quaest.  xxx.  Art.  3. 
See  also  Prima  Secundae,  Quaest.  xcviii.  Art.  3,  On  the  g-iving"  of 
the  Law  '  per  angelos.'  Later  Latin  Theologians,  like  Lyranus, 
Abulensis,  and  the  Jesuit  Commentators  Suarez  and  Cornelius 
a  Lapide,  take  the  same  general  view,  identifying  the  Angel  of 
the  Cloudy  Pillar  and  of  the  vision  to  Joshua  with  the  archangel 
Michael,  as  '  olim  praeses  synagogae  Judaeorum  sicut  nunc  est 
praeses  Ecclesiae  Christianorum.'  On  Judges  vi.  14,  And  Jehovah 
looked  upon  him  [Gideon),  Cornelius  glosses  '  puta  Angelas  legatus 
Domini,  ej usque  personam  repraesentans.'  With  reference  to  the 
(supposed)  difficulty  of  Gideon^s  not  being  a  priest,  he  quotes 
Abulensis  as  thinking  that  the  angel  sacerdotally  offered  the 
sacrifice,  while  he  himself  maintains  that  the  offering  [ininchah^ 
was  not  presented  by  Gideon  as  a  sacrifice,  but  only  as  hospitable 
refreshment.  The  same  difficulty,  of  course,  occurs  in  the 
Appearance  to  Manoah.  Here  Cornelius  (who  thinks,  with 
Serarius,  that  the  angel  was  St.  Michael)  adopts  the  view  that 
it  was  a  sacrifice,  but  that  the  angel  offered  it.  This  idea, 
obviously,  is  hardly  consistent  with  his  view  that  the  angel 
(who,  he  says,  accepted  worship,  not  indeed  '  latria,'  but  '  dulia') 
was  God's  '  Vice-gerent,'  and  at  least  for  the  time  and  for 
each  occasion,  '  repraesentabat  Dominum,  sicut  legatus  reprae- 
sentat  principem  a  quo  mittitur.'  His  comment  on  the  as- 
sumption, by  the  angel  who  appeared  to  Manoah,  of  the  name 
'Wonderful'  or  'Secret'  must  be  read  in  extenso,  for  its  weak- 
ness to  be  appreciated.  On  the  other  hand,  another  Jesuit 
writer,  nearly  contemporary  with  h,  Lapide,  the  Portuguese  Ant. 
Fernandius,  in  a  work  In  Visiones  V.  T.  (ed.  nova,  Lugduni,  161 7) 
expressly  dealing  with  the  question,  Apparueritne  Moijsi  Dens  ipse, 
an  aliqxiis  Angelns  (visio  sexta,  on  Exod.  iii.  Comment.  II.  §  i, 
p.  179),  sets  out  both  views,  with  authorities,  and  concludes, 
'  Nobis  videtur  probabilius  esse  .  .  .  Deum  ipsum  et  specialiter 


NOTE  VII.]  yewish  Interpretation.  49 1 

Verbum  Divinum  interdum  apparuisse  Patribus  in  veteri  Tcsta- 
mento/  He  quotes  Theodoret  for  the  wrestling  of  the  Divine 
Son  with  Jacob.  To  the  arg-nment  of  Abulensis,  that  '  nee  in 
promulgatione  Icgis,  opere  omnium  Veteris  Testamenti  eeleber- 
rimo,  Deus  erat,  qui  loquebatur  Moysi,  ut  patet  ex  illo  ad  Galat. 
iii.  9,  Lex  ordinata  per  angelos  in  manu  Mediatoris,'  and  that,  if 
not  then,  then  never  ''  Deura  alieui  apparuisse,  sed  Ang-elum  loco 
Dei,'  he  answers  well,  '  Illud  .  .  .  non  sig-nificat  Angelos  dedisse 
legem,  sed  suum  ibi  exhibuisse  ministerium  :  nam  constat  in- 
sonuisse  tubas,  micuisse  ignes,  audita  tonitrua,  et  haec  ipsa 
ministerio  Angelorum  facta,  nee  aliud  voluisse  Paulum.'  On  the 
Vision  of  Isaiah,  he  says,  p.  293,  '  Sub  hujusmodi  similitudinibus 
[sc.  in  aliqua  similitudine  corporali]  visus  est  saepenumero  Deus 
^  veteribus  Patriarchis.'  On  the  Vision  of  Ezekiel,  ch.  i.  26-28, 
he  says,  p.  391, '  Hac  forma  secundum  omnes  intelligitur  Christus ; 
nam  sieut  ilia  ex  electro  et  igne  constabat,  ita  Christus  ....  ex 
divina  humanaque  natura.'  On  Dan.  ix.  5,  he  thinks  '  tJte  man 
clothed  in  linen '  was  the  angel  Gabriel,  quoting  '  Cassianus  Collat. 
8,  and  D.  Gregor.  17  Moral.  8,'  for  an  idea  that  he  had  a  special 
guardianship  over  the  Jews  of  the  Captivity. 

XXII.  Jewish  Interpretation.  A  full  investigation  of  the 
later  Jewish  views  of  the  Theophanies  is  impossible  within  the 
limits  of  this  Note.  It  is  a  suspicious  circumstance  that,  in  the 
main,  it  coincides  with  the  Augustinian  view.  The  student  will 
find  much  that  is  interesting  on  the  point  in  a  Trandation 
(London,  1837)  by  the  late  Dr.  M'^Caul,  to  whom  the  Hebrew 
was  almost  a  mother  tongue,  of  the  Commentary  on  ZecJiariah, 
by  Babbi  David  Kimchi  (son  of  Joseph  Kimchi)  of  Narbonne, 
about  the  time  of  the  Third  Crusade,  a.d.  1190.  Kimchi  iden- 
tities the  Angel  of  the  LoiiD  with  the  man  Gabriel  of  Dan.  ix.  21. 
Dr.  M^^Caul,  speaking  for  himself,  says,  p.  9,  '  It  has  been  re- 
peatedly proved  by  Christian  writers  that  this  Being  is  none 
other  than  the  Son  of  God  ' ;  and  mentions  especially  INIr.  Faber 
in  '  Horae  Mosaicae/  and  Dr.  Pye  Smith  on  The  Messiah.     He 

vindicates,  p.  11,  the  rendering  of  rTiiT^  '^f^^'r  ^Y  ^'^^^  Angel 
of  the  Loud,  and  thinks  that  '  there  is  but  one  person  thus  called.' 
At  p.  15,  'The  being  designated  by  the  title  The  Angel  of  the 


492  The   Theophanies.     Jewish   View.  [app. 

Lgud  is  called  also  JlirT^,  Jehovah,  the  proper  Name  of  God ;  and 
from  the  Rabbinical  Commentaries  it  appears  that  this  inference 
is  not  peculiar  to  Christians,  nor  forced  from  the  text  in  order 
to  suit  their  doctrinal  views,  but  that  the  rabbies,  who  made 
it  their  peculiar  care  to  overthrow  every  interpretation  favourable 
to  Christianity,  were  nevertheless  constrained,  by  the  plainness 
and  frequency  of  such  passages,  to  come  to  the  same  conclusion.' 
They  tried  to  explain  this  away  by  saying*  that  the  messenger 
was  called  by  the  Name  of  Him  that  sent  him.  Yet  they 
admitted  that  the  Name  TV\TV  was  incommunicable.  '  Why 
then  (p.  19)  is  it  communicated  to  The  Angel  of  f he  Lord  ?  There 
can  be  but  one  answer :  Because  He  partakes  of  that  Substance 
and  Essence  which  makes  the  communication  of  the  Name  suit- 
able ;  or,  in  other  words,  because  The  Anrjel  of  the  Lord  is  very 
God."  And  Dr.  M'^Caul  refers  to  the  Appearance  to  Jacob,  Gen. 
xxxi.  The  shifts  to  which  the  later  Jewish  Commentators  were 
driven,  in  their  endeavour  to  evade  the  evident  force  of  such 
passages,  are  well  illustrated  by  the  remarks  of  R.  Bechai  on  this 
Appearance.  He  says,  '  If  interpreted  literally,  the  words  I  am 
the  God  of  Bethel  mean  The  God  that  ajij'ieared  to  thee  in  Bethel. 
But  according  to  Cabbalistic  interpretation,  this  angel  who  calls 
himself  The  God  of  Bethel,  is  the  goodness  spoken  of  in  the  words 
7?^?'//  make  all  my  goodness  jmss  tjefore  thee  [Eocod.  xxxiii.  19)  ;  and 
he  is  the  house  mentioned  in  the  words  Who  lo  as  faithful  in  all 
mij  house  ;  for  a  man's  goodness  is  his  house,  and  therefore  he  says 
of  himself,  I  am  the  God  of  Bethel.  And  so  it  is  said  of  Jacob, 
Tie  called  the ^^lace  '•'•  Bl-Bethel.^''  But,  behold,  even  according  to 
the  literal  interpretation  of  the  verse,  it  is  certain  that  the  angel 
is  the  God  of  Bethel;  and  understand  this.'  {fJomment.  in  loc.) 
Dr.  M'^Caul,  p.  22,  refers  to  Menachem  of  Rekanata  for  the 
same  opinion  ;  and  speaking,  p.  25,  of  the  Burning  Bush,  says, 
*  R.  Bechai  testifies  unreservedly  to  the  fact  that  the  Angel  here 
calls  himself  The  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  "  Ask  not," 
he  says,  "  how  Moses  could  hide  his  face  before  the  angel,  for  the 
angel  mentioned  here  is  the  Angel,  the  Redeemer,  of  Whom  it  is 
written  I  am  the  God  of  Bethel.  And  in  like  manner  it  is  said 
here,  I  am  the  God  of  thy  Father,  the  God  of  Abraham^  the  God  of 


NOTE  VII.]  Modern   Writers.  493 

Imac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  and  he  it  is  of  tohom  it  is  said,  Mij 
Name  is  in  him.  [Comment,  in  loc.)."  11.  Moses  ben  Naehman 
goes  a  step  further;  he  not  only  confirms  the  fact,  but  rejects 
the  explanation,  that  the  angel  was  speaking  in  the  name  of  Him 
that  sent  him.  His  words  are,  "  The  explanation,  that  in  the 
words  /  am  the  God  of  thij  father  the  messenger  spoke  in  the 
language  of  Him  that  sent  him,  is  not  correct,  for  Moses'  degree 
in  prophecy  was  too  high  for  him  to  hide  his  face  before  the 
angel  ....  This  angel  was  the  Angel,  the  Redeemer,  for  it  is 
said,  Mif  Name  is  in  him.  He  it  is  who  said  to  Jacob,  /  am  the 
God  of  Bethel ;  and  of  him  it  is  said,  And  God  called  to  him  [i.  e. 
to  Moses  out  of  the  Bush]  ....  And  thus  it  is  written  [in  one 
place]  And  the  Loiw  brought  ns  out  of  ILgypt  {Beut.  vi.  21)  ;  and 
[in  another  place]  it  is  written  And  he  sent  an  angel,  and  hath 
brought  us  forth  out  of  Egypt  [Num.  xx.  16).  Again,  it  is  said, 
The  angel  of  his  presence  saved  them,  that  is  to  say,  The  angel  who 
is  his  presence  [Isa.  Ixiii.  9).  For  it  is  written.  My  presence  shall 
go,  and  I  will  give  thee  rest  {Exod.  xxxiii.  14).  And  this  is  what 
is  said.  The  Lord  whom  ye  seek  shall  suddenly  come  to  his  Temple, 
even  the  messenger  of  the  Covenant,  whom  ye  delight  in :  behold,  he 
shall  come  [Mai.  iii.  i)."  '  After  quoting  this  from  Nachmanides, 
Dr.  M'^Caul  sums  up  as  follows  : — '  We  have  here  the  confession 
of  Jews,  that  that  Being  who  is  called  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  says 
of  himself  that  he  is  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  ;  that 
this  is  the  ])lain  meaning  of  the  text.  What,  then,  is  the  con- 
clusion ?  What  can  it  be  but  that  he  is  what  he  claimed  to  be  ? 
W^e  have  seen  that  there  is  but  one  Being  who  is  called  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord ;  secondly.  That  the  Name  of  this  one  Being 
is  Jehovah,  the  incommunicable  Name  of  God  ;  and,  thirdly, 
That  this  Being  says  of  himself,  distinctly  and  unequivocally, 
that  he  is  the  God  whom  Jacob  worshipped,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob ;  and  we  have  seen,  fourthly.  That  this  is  as 
plainly  asserted  by  the  Jews  as  by  us.  There  is  but  one  possible 
conclusion,  and  that  is,  that  this  Being  is  very  God.' 

XXIII.  MoDEUN  W^KiTEiis.  John  Diodati,  of  Geneva,  in  his 
useful  Annotations  on  the  Bible,  Eng.  Trans.  2nd  ed.  1648,  main- 
tains consistently  the  primitive  view  that  the  Angel  of  the  Lord, 


494        ^-^^  Theophanies.     Ode,  '  De  Angelis!      [app. 

and  the  Being*  seen  in  human  form  by  the  prophets,  was  the  Sou 
of  God.  Space  forbids  quotation ;  but  see  his  clear  comment  on 
Exod.  xxiv.  lo  ;  xxxii.  34;  xxxiii.  14;  xxxiv.  9.  So  Archbishop 
Usher,  in  his  Annales  Vet.  Test.  1650,  writes,  p,  38, '  Jesus  Dominus 
noster,  Princeps  militiae  Patris  sui,  Jesu  typico  ad  Jerichuntem 
stricto  o^ladio  apparens,  promittit  ee  populum  defensurum.'  So 
Bishop  Patrick,  who  quotes  this  from  Usher.  So  Matthew  Henry, 
1706,  in  most  cases,  following  Patrick.  So  Thomas  Scott,  de- 
cisively and,  in  most  cases,  consistently;  see  especially  on  Gen. 
xxxi.  13  ;  xxxii.  30  ;  JosJma  v.  13  ;  Judges  ii.  i  ;  v.  14  ;  xiii.  18. 
So  D'Oyly  and  Mant,  1818,  who  quote  Stackhouse,  Dr.  Hales, 
Bishop  Kidder,  Shuckford  (see  on  Exod.  iii.).  Dean  Allix,  Dr. 
Woodward  and  Bishop  Watson  {Joshua  v.  13),  Pyle  {Judges  ii.  i), 
for  the  primitive  view. 

The  student  should  also  consult  the  copious  work  of  Jacobus 
Ode,  De  Angelis,  Traj.  ad  Rhenum,  1739, 4to.  pp.  1068,  especially 
his  concluding  Sect.  X.  Be  Angela  Jehovae,  F'lUo  Bel,  in  which  he 
argues  against  certain  classes  of  writers  who  adopt  the  '  created- 
angel '  hypothesis,  e.g.  Roman  Catholics,  who  wished  to  find  an 
argument  for  the  worship  of  angels.  Remonstrants,  who  wished 
to  establish  their  opinion  that  the  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity 
is  nowhere  revealed  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  Socinians,  like 
Crellius  and  Schlichtingius,  who  thereby  got  rid  of  an  argument 
for  the  pre-existence  of  Christ,  p.  10 17.  On  Judges  vi.  he  writes, 
p.  1042,  '  Quem  Gideon,  v,  13,  vocat  ''^"Tb^  cum  Chireck,  quando 
nondum  cum  Divinam  esse  Personam  cognoverat,  eumdem  sibi 
melius  ex  sermone  cognitum,  vv.  15  et  22,  vocat  "^^It^  cum 
Kametz  signatum  .  .  .  Divina  Persona  quae  et  Angelus  Jehovae 
et  Jehova  ipse  vocatur,  et  divina  ad  homines  in  salutem  populi 
sui  legatione  functus  fuit,  debet  fuisse  Filius  Dei,  ob  relationem 
quam  tanquam  Sponsor  et  Mediator  habet  tarn  ad  Deum  Patrem 
quam  ad  electos  homines,  Sibi  in  aeterno  pacis  consilio  in  haere- 
ditatem  datos,  ut  ipso  opere  demonstraret  Se  demandatum  Sibi  a 
Patre,  atque  liberrime  susceptum  munus  fideliter  administrare, 
et  populi  sui  curam  gerere.'  Vid.  Jes.  48.  16  ;  et  61.  i,  2.  At 
p.  1043  he  quotes  Habickhorstius,  Calovius,  and  Vitringa,  as 
thoroughly   answering   objections   alleged   to    his   view.      The 


NOTE  VII.]  Living  English   Writers.  495 

Manoah  vision,  lie  says,  p.  1045,  is  well  defended  by  Vitringa, 
Observat.  Sacr.  Lib.  IV.  cap.  15.  §  4-13.  The  angel  spoken  of 
by  EHhu,  Job  xxxiii.  23,  was,  he  says,  the  Son  of  God,  p.  1046. 

Of  living  writers  among  ourselves,  besides  those  enumerated 
on  p.  108,  Bishop  Wordsworth  of  Lincoln  favours  the  primitive 
view.  On  JosJi.  v.  he  writes,  '  The  ancient  Jewish  Church  .... 
believed  that  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host  was  the  Word 
of  God.  ...  So  Calovius,  Gerhard,  Pfeiffer,'Lightfoot.'  Quoting 
Origen  (Qu.  6),  '  Joshua  perceived  that  He  was  not  only  of 
God,  but  was  God.  For  he  would  not  have  worshipped  Him 
unless  he  had  recognized  Him  to  be  God.  And  (it  may  be  added) 
if  this  Person  had  been  only  a  created  angel,  he  would  not  have 
received  adoration  from  Joshua,  but  have  said,  "  See  thou  do  it 
not ;  worship  God."  And  who  is  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host, 
but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  ' — he  concludes,  '  On  the  whole, 
then,  this  sublime  vision  may  be  regarded  as  a  vision  not  of 
any  created  being,  but  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  the  Lord 
Jehovah  ; '  and  refers  to  'The  vision  vouchsafed  to  Moses  at  the 
Bush,'  as  being,  '  as  all  Christian  antiquity  believed,  a  vision  of 
the  Son  of  God.' 

Again,  On  Judges  ii.  i :  '  Who  was  this  Angel  who  came  from 
Gilgal  to  Bochim?  Probably  the  Second  Person  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.     He  speaks  as  God.' 

And  on  Judges  vi.  11,  '  an  angel  of  the  Loed]  Who  seems  to 
have  been  no  other  than  God  the  Son  :  see  vv.  14  and  16,  where 
He  is  called  Jehovah  ;  and  see  above,  note  on  Gen.  xxii.  1 1 ; 
Exod.  iii,  %  ;  xxiii.  20,  23;  xxxii.  34;  xxxiii.  2  ;  Josh.  v.  13  ; 
Judg.  ii.  I  ;  below  xiii.  19.'  And,  on  ver.  23,  '  Here  then  was  a 
mysterious  vision  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  before  His  Incar- 
nation.' 

And,  on  Judges  xiii.  3,  '  tJie  angel  of  the  LoriL)\  From  vv.  18, 
19,  and  22,  it  appears  that  this  was  no  other  than  a  Divine 
Person,  the  Son  of  God,  who  had  appeared  to  Gideon.'  And, 
on  ver.  19,  'The  "Angel  of  the  Lord"  was  no  other  than  the 
Lord  God  Himself,  Whose  name  is  Wonderful,  the  Son  of  God.' 

Otherwise  Canon  Liddon,  who  in  the  second  of  his  Bampton 
Lectures  of  1866  has  a  passage  on  the  Theophauies,  in  connection 


496     The  Thcophanies.     Liddon,  Payne  Smith,    [app. 

with  the  subject  of  Old  Testament  '  intimations  of  the  existence 
of  a  Phirality  of  Persons  within  the  One  Essence  of  God.'     In 
the  course  of  a  summary  of  the  Bible  narratives  of  these  Appear- 
ances, which,  naturally,  points  almost  irresistibly  to  the  earlier 
view  about  them,  he  Avrites,  with  especial  reference  to  the  three 
Appearances  of  the  Angel  of  the  Loud  in  the  Book  of  Judg-es, 
'We  are  scarcely  sensible  of  the  action  of  a  created  personality,  so 
completely  is  the  language  and  bearing'  that  of  the  higher  nature 
present  in  the  Angel.'     Yet,   on  the   question   '  Who  was  this 
Angel  ?,'  while  admitting*  as  '  beyond  dispute  '  that  '  the  earliest 
Fathers  answer  with  general  unanimity  that  he  was  the  Word  or 
Son  of  God  Himself,'  and  that  their  view  *  has  been  more  gene- 
rally advocated  by  English  divines/  he  thinks  that  the  Augus- 
tinian  interpretation,  though  '  not  unaccompanied  by  considerable 
difficulties  when  we  apply  it  to  the  sacred  text,'  yet  '  certainly 
seems  to  relieve  us  of  greater  embarrassments  than  any  which  it 
creates.'     He  describes  the  '  general  doctrine '  of  St.  Augustine 
to  be,  '  that  the  Theophanies  were  not  direct  appearances  of  a 
Person  in  the  Godhead,  but  Self-manifestations  of  God  through 
a  created  being.'     But  this,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  also  the 
^doctrine'  of  the  post-Christian  Jewish  Commentators,  is,  ob- 
viously, no  help  whatever  towards  the  proof  either  of  a  Plurality 
of  Persons  within  the  Divine  Essence,  or  of  the  Incarnation  of 
the  Second  Person.     An  Uni-personal  God  could  manifest  Him- 
self '  through  a  created  being,'  angel  or  man  ;  and  the  Mussul- 
man, or  the  Unitarian,  might  say  that  He  did  so  manifest  Himself 
in  Jesus.     The  Augustinian  view,  in  that  it  expressly  does  not 
restrict   them    to    being   manifestations    of    the   Second  Person 
'  through  a  created  being,'  really  detaches  them  from  all '  relation 
to  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord's  Divinity ; '  for  it  detaches  them 
from  all  ascertained  specific  relation  to  Him  whatever,  whether 
as  God  or  as  Man  ;  and  so,  at  the  same  time,  destroys  altogether 
their  character  as  '  anticipations  of  a  coming  Incarnation.'  Amicus 
Avgustbms,  sed  magis  arnica  Veritas.     We  may  not  call  any  man 
'  master '  upon  earth. 

Dean  Payne  Smith,  of  Canterbury,  in  an  Excursus  to  Genesis, 
in  the  recently  published  First  Vol.  of  Bishop  EUicott's  0.  T. 


NOTE  VII.]  Steward's  '  Mediatorial  Sovereignty'.        497 

Comment ar?/  for  English  Readers,  wavers  in  his  view,  omitting-  to 
notice  that  he,  whoever  he  he,  who  is  introduced  as  pre-eminently 
The  Angel  of  the  Lob i),  is  always  one  and  the  same.  He  seems  to 
think  that,  while,  sometimes,  the  '  manifestation  of  Deity  was  so 
high  '  that  *  we  may  fearlessly  connect  this  angel  with  our  hlessed 
Lord,  called  "the  angel  of  the  covenant"  in  Mai.  iii.  i,'  yet, 
'  ffencrallv  it  was  created  ang-els  who  were  the  medium  of  com- 
munication  hetwecn  God  and  man.'  But  if  there  he  One  only 
who  is  The  Angel  of  the  LOBD,  then  what  he  is  in  the  instances 
where  his  identification  with  a  Divine  Person  is  so  evident 
that  it  must  he  admitted,  that  he  is  in  all  instances.  And  is 
there  not  really  a  sufficient  intimation  of  his  identity  in  every 
instance  ? 

I  close  this  Note  with  a  passage  from  a  valuahle  work  which 
is  not,  I  fear,  so  widely  known  as  it  deserves  to  be  among- 
students  of  Theology,  Steward's  Mediatorial  Sovereignty  (3  vols. 
8vo.,  Clark,  Edinburgh,  1863),  Part  I.  chap.  iv.  p.  113. 

'The  Angel  must  be  accounted  God,  in  whatever  way  we  may 
explain  this ;  or  the  Scriptures  not  only  teach  falsehood  but 
blasphemy.  Nor  can  the  Socinian  hypothesis  that  the  Angel 
signifies  no  more  than  some  sensible  form  of  appearance  but 
without  personalitii,  or,  at  most,  but  a  temporary  one  ;  or  even 
the  Arian  hypothesis  that  the  Angel  was  a  real  person,  and  a 
very  glorious  one,  though  not  God,  relieve  these  texts  of  such 
imputations.  For,  on  the  former  showing,  the  Angel  was  no 
more  entitled  to  put  himself  forth  and  to  speak  as  if  he  ioere  God, 
than  any  image,  or  thing  whatsoever,  because  employed  as  a 
medium  of  communication.  Here  the  medium  is  not  the  person 
employing  it,  and  therefore  cannot  be  represented  to  be  that 
person  consistently  with  truth,  and  without  teaching  us  that  we 
may  regard  as  God  that  which  is  not  God  ;  and  may,  therefore, 
pay  worship  on  this  principle  of  represetitation  to  that  which  is 
not  God,  as  if  it  were  God  Himself,  which  is  the  very  essence  of 
idolatr}'.  .  .  .  Nor  does  the  Arian  hypothesis  which  ascribes  the 
highest  creature  rank  to  the  Angel,  go  any  further  toward  a  just 
exposition  than  the  former.  It  is  true,  it  is  more  plausible  in 
one  respect  than  the  other  because  it  allows  a  substantial  per- 

Kk 


498     The  Theophanies.     Steward' s  'Mediatorial   [app. 

sonality  to  the  Angel,  but  it  halts  altogether  when  it  professes 
to  explain  to  us  why  this  Angel  is  called  God,  and  speaks  and 
acts  as  if  he  were  God.  By  allowing  personality  proper,  there- 
fore, it  is  driven  to  admit  Divinity  in  an  imj)ro2)er,  and  therefore, 
in  a  false  sense  as  ascribed  to  the  Angel,  which  amounts  to  an 
imputation  on  the  veracity  of  Scripture,  and  a  sanction  to 
idolatry,  though  by  a  more  plausible  path  than  the  other  .... 
It  remains,  then,  that  the  grand  initial  oracle  of  Eevelation  is 
the  true  key  to  this  mysterious  appellation,  "  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord" — namely,  the  plurality  of  persons  in  the  Divine  Nature, 
the  very  zmiii/  of  which  not  only  admits  but  requires  such  dis- 
tinctions as  this  appellation  implies.  Their  essential  relations  as 
Triune  give  rise  to  an  order  of  agency  and  outgoing  strictly  con- 
formable to,  and  in  effect,  expository  of  them,  since  all  things 
are  designed  to  manifest  God  to  His  creatures,  and  to  glorify 
Him  as  He  is.  Hence,  we  can  understand  how  the  term  Angel  as 
well  as  the  term  Word  may  distinguish  a  person  truly  God, 
though  these  cannot  be  applicable  to  each  person  of  the  Godhead 
indiscriminately.  He  whose  Angel  this  divine  Person  is,  must 
be  supreme  on  the  ground  o'i personal  priority/  to  Him  who  is  His 
Angel ;  and  this  order,  therefore,  cannot  be  arbitrary  and  in- 
vertible.  This  fact  becomes  fully  manifest  when  the  New 
Testament  statements  on  this  point  are  applied  to  elucidate 
the  more  vague  and  general  statements  of  the  Old.  In  them, 
2)ersonal  relations  are  brought  out,  not  only  as  consistent  with 

the  Unity,  but  as  of  its  very  essence Now  this  shows  us 

at  once,  why  the  term  Angel  is  used  to  denote  the  Mediating 
Deitj/ :  it  belongs  to  Him  as  "  the  head  of  all  principality  and 
power."  He  is  the  Angel  or  Envoy,  who  is  not  only  the  head  of 
a  whole  host  of  these  "  ministering  spirits,"  but  in  a  very  peculiar 
sense  the  Minister  of  God  on  behalf  of  the  world.  It  is  His 
ministry  that  gives  rise  to  every  other,  and  that  ordains  and  sets 
all  these  in  motion.  It  is  the  vinculum  or  bond  between  "  Him 
whom  no  man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see,"  and  the  creatures  made 
like  Him,  and  to  be  restored  to  Him,  by  Him  who  is  "  become 
one  of  us." 

'  Thus,  we  see  that  Angel  implies  the  position  of  a  Mediator 


NOTE  VII.]  Sovereignty'    Archbishop  Trench.  499 

and  all  the  prerog-atives  and  works  proper  to  Him,  while  it  has 
this  advantage  over  the  term  Word,  that  it  is  more  strongly 

personal.     It  cannot  be  resolved  into  personification It  is 

also  worth  notice,  that  the  passage  in  which  the  first  mention 
occurs  of  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord  "  is  in  the  chapter  immediately 
following  the  one  opening  with  the  first  mention  of  the  "  Word 
of  the  Lord  "  in  a  sense  undoubtedly  personal,  as  if  this  collation 
of  the  terms  Word  and  Angel  were  meant  to  form  together  an 
outset  in  the  career  of  mediatorial  personality ,  loJnchfrom  this  point 
onward  acquires  increasing  variety  and  fulness  of  expression  ;  while 
the  evidence  before  adduced  is  in  proof  that  the  functions  any 
more  than  the  office  of  the  Mediator  did  not  take  date  from  this 
point,  but  connected  the  manifestations  now  referred  to  with  the 
earliest  times.  It  is  but  distinct  pjersonal  development  that  now 
occurs ;  a  fact  which  supposes  official  pre-existence  just  as  cer- 
tainly as  it  does  a  personal  one^  and  in  entire  keeping  with  th ' 
germlnant  principle  inherent  in  all  the  divine  counsels  and 
works,  of  which  the  history  of  Creation  itself  supplies  a  great 
example.' 

I  thankfully  add  here  a  passage  from  a  precious  little  volume 
which  I  did  not  see  until  after  these  Lectures  were  delivei'ed, 
Archbishop  Trench  of  Dublin's  Five  Cambridge  UnlversUy  Sermons 
of  Nov.  1856  (Macmillan).  It  is  irideed  a  passage  which  covers 
more  than  the  point  immediately  before  us  in  this  Note  ;  but 
my  readers  will  only  value  it  the  more  on  that  account.  It  does 
indeed  indicate,  if  it  may  be  permitted  to  me  to  say  so,  a  worthy 
grasp  at  once  of  the  grandeur  of  the  Christian  Faith,  and  of  the 
lines  which  the  English  Theology  of  the  future,  and  especially 
its  Apologetic,  should  follow.  It  is  from  the  First  Sermon,  On 
Christ  the  Only  Begotten,  p.  9. 

'  If  we  would  be  delivered  from  these  dangers,  and  re-assert 
for  that  which  is  the  queen-science  of  all,  her  rightful  dominion 
over  the  hearts  and  spirits  of  men,  we  must  learn  to  fall  back 
more  on  those  transcendant  truths  of  which  the  prologue  of 
St.  John  is  full — to  meditate  on  them  more  fully  and  more  fre- 
quently— to  bring  them  into  greater  prominence  for  ourselves 

K  k  2 


500         The  Theophanies.     Archbishop  Trench      [app. 

and  for  others — to  believe  that  it  was  not  for  nothing-  that  this 
Scripture,  or  the  first  chapter  of  Colossians,  was  written.  We 
must  learn  to  connect  our  Lord's  manifestation  in  the  flesh, 
not  indeed  less  with  all  which  followed  it,  his  death,  his  resur- 
rection, his  ascension,  his  g-lorified  sitting  at  the  rig-ht  hand  of 
the  Majesty  on  high  ;  but  to  connect  it  more  with  that  which 
preceded,  his  eternal  generation,  the  glory  which  He  had  with 
the  Father  before  the  world  was,  the  creation  of  all  worlds  by 
Him,  and  above  all,  of  man,  not  merely  by  Him,  but  in  Him, 
and  for  Him,  and  io  Him  ;  and  this  so  really,  that  even  had 
there  been  no  Fall  and  Incarnation,  a  coming  forth  on  his  part, 
as  at  once  the  root  and  perfect  flower  of  our  nature,  would 
probably  not  the  less  have  been. 

'  It  behoves  us,  indeed,  to  speak  with  hesitation  and  modesty 
on  a  matter  like  this.  Had  there  been  no  Fall,  the  conditions 
under  which  that  transcendant  manifestation  of  love  and  of 
honour  done  to  man  must  have  taken  place,  would  of  course  have 
been  infinitely  different  from  those  under  which  the  Eternal  Son 
did  actually  exchange  the  form  of  God  for  the  form  of  a  servant, 
and  become  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Those  conditions,  more  glorious  seemingly,  would  have  been  less 
glorious  in  realit}^,  for  they  would  have  lacked  the  glory  of 
suffering,  the  unfathomable  wonder  of  that  infinite  self-denial 
which  stooped  to  the  fallen  and  the  guilty,  and  shared  the 
miseries  of  the  one  and  the  penalties  of  the  other.  But  the 
thing  itself,  we  may  reverently  believe,  would  not  the  less  have 
been.  They  only  re-affirm  what  has  been  the  conviction  of  many 
theologians  in  all  times,  who  are  persuaded  that  the  headship  of 
the  race  of  man  would  have  pertained  to  Him  not  the  less,  to 
whom  all  headship  of  men  or  of  angels  rightly  appertains  ;  all 
things  in  heaven  and  in  earth  being  recapitulated  in  Him ;  since 
only  in  this  recapitulation  could  the  race  of  Adam  have  attained 
the  end  of  its  creation,  the  place  among  the  families  of  God,  for 
which  from  the  first  it  was  designed. 

'  In  this  view,  the  taking  on  Himself  of  our  flesh  by  the 
Eternal  Word  was  no  makeshift,  to  meet  a  mighty,  yet  still  a 
particular  emergent,  need  ;  a  need  which,  conceding  the  liberty 


NOTE  VII.]  on  probable  Incarnation  in  any  case.         501 

of  man's  will  and  that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  have  continued 
in  his  first  state  of  obedience,  might  never  have  occurred.  It 
was  not  a  mere  result  and  reparation  of  the  Fall,  such  an  act 
as,  except  for  that,  would  never  have  been ;  but  lay  bedded  at  a 
far  deeper  depth  in  the  counsels  of  God  for  the  glory  of  his  Son, 
and  the  exaltation  of  that  race  formed  in  his  image  and  his  like- 
ness. For  against  those  who  regard  the  Incarnation  as  an 
arbitrary,  or  as  merely  an  historic  event,  and  not  an  ideal  one  as 
well,  we  may  well  urge  this  weighty  consideration,  that  the  Son 
of  God  did  not  in  and  after  his  ascension  strip  off  this  human 
nature  again  ;  He  did  not  regard  his  humanity  as  a  robe,  to  be 
worn  for  a  while,  and  then  laid  aside  ;  the  convenient  form  of 
his  manifestation,  so  long  as  He  was  conversing  with  men  upon 
earth,  but  the  fitness  of  which  had  with  that  conversation  passed 
away.  So  far  from  this,  we  know  on  the  contrary  that  He 
assumed  our  nature  for  ever,  married  it  to  Himself,  glorified 
it  with  his  own  glory,  carried  it  as  the  form  of  his  eternal 
subsistence  into  the  world  of  angels,  before  the  presence  of  his 
Father.  Had  there  been  anything  accidental  here,  had  the 
assumption  of  our  nature  been  an  afterthought  (I  speak  as  a 
man),  this  marriage  of  the  Son  of  God  with  that  nature  could 
scarcely  be  conceived.  He  could  hardly  have  so  taken  it — taken 
it,  that  is,  for  ever — unless  it  had  possessed  an  ideal  as  well  as 
an  historic  fitness ;  unless  pre-established  harmonies  had  existed, 
such  harmonies  as  only  a  divine  intention  could  have  brought 
about  between  the  one  and  the  other. 

'  What  lhoi>e  pre-established  harmonies  were,  the  words  of  the 
heathen  poet,  but  words  adopted  and  made  his  own  by  the 
Christian  Ai)0stle,  declare — "  For  we  are  all  his  offspring ;"  words, 
be  it  remembered,  not  addressed  to  the  regenerate,  and  on  the 
ground  of  their  regeneration,  but  addressed  by  St.  Paul  to  his 
heathen  listeners  at  Athens.  Children  of  this  world,  children  of 
wrath,  as  all  or  nearly  all  of  those  listeners  may  well  have  been 
when  he  addressed  them,  he  yet  did  not  fear  to  bring  them  back 
to  their  divine  original,  to  remind  them  of  the  ideal  heights  and 
primeval  destinies  of  man — all  forfeited  in  Adam,  and  now  won 
back  and  recovered  in  Christ ;  but  which  yet  had  been  only  re- 


502  Co-Inherence  oj  the  Divine  Persons.         [app. 

coverable,  because  they  were  a  portion  of  man's  original  inherit- 
ance; because  in  the  fact  that  man  was  God's  offspring-,  or  God's 
race,  the  possibility  hiy  that  One  should  come  forth  from  God, 
He  too  God's  Son  from  eternity,  fulfilling  this  name  to  the  utter- 
most ;  who  should  place  his  shoulders  under  the  mighty  ruin  of 
our  race,  should  arrest  its  fall,  and  so  vindicate  his  right  to  ex- 
claim, "  The  earth  and  its  inhabiters  are  dissolved.  I  bear  up 
the  pillars  thereof."  It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  in  discours- 
ing of  the  Word  made  flesh,  we  may  fitly,  as  regards  the  re- 
deemed, carry  back  our  thoughts  to  that  creation  of  man  in 
God's  image  and  likeness,  which  alone  rendered  an  Incarnation 
possible.  We  may  fitly  also,  as  respects  the  Redeemer,  declare 
that  we  regard  that  but  as  one  step,  the  last  indeed,  and  most 
glorious  one,  of  his  manifestation,  that  He  who  so  manifested 
Himself  then,  had  been  manifesting  Himself  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world  ;  and  not  of  our  world  only ;  for  the  Apostle  speaks 
of  another  and  a  higher  world  in  these  words,  "  When  He  bringeth 
in  the  First  Begotten  in  the  world  He  saith.  And  let  the  angels 
of  God  worship  Him."  But  yet  in  our  world  also  we  may  affirm 
that  He  had  been  manifesting  Himself  long  before,  patriarch  and 
prophet  walking  in  his  light,  encountering  Him,  as  He,  the 
Angel  of  the  Covenant,  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host,  preluded 
his  Incarnation  by  transient  assumptions  of  a  human  form.  Yea, 
every  spark  of  higher  life  which  was  not  trodden  out  in  heathen- 
dom, we  have  a  right,  resting  on  Jhis  Scripture,  to  declare  that 
it  was  He  who  kept  it  alive,  that  this  light  shining  in  men's 
darkness,  was  his  light,  his  unextinguished  and  inextinguishable 
witness  in  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men.' 

Note  VIII.  §  89. 

The  inseparable  Co-inherence  of  (lie  Three  Divine  Persons. 

This  truth  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  essential  conception  of 
the  Co-equal  Trinity  of  Persons  in  the  One  Divine  Essence. 
It  follows  from  the  idea  of  the  Infinity  which  belongs  to  the 
Supreme  Spirit,  both  in  Person  and  in  Essence.  Infinities 
cannot  be  mutually  exclusive ;    but  must    necessarily  coincide 


NOTE  IX.]  The  title  A  don  at.  503 

and  interpenetrate  each  other.  Exclusion  implies  limitation; 
which  is  foreign  to  the  Divine  Nature.  So  Bishop  Bull  says, 
Def.  Fid.  Nic.  II.  ix.  23,  that  the  Three  Divine  Persons  'inti- 
mately cohere  together  and  arc  conjoined  One  with  Another ; 
and  thus  that  they  exist  One  in  the  Other,  and,  so  to  speak, 
mutually  run  into  and  penetrate  Each  Other,  by  a  certain 
ineffable  nepiyuipriais,  which  the  Schoolmen  call  circuminsessioJ' 
The  lowest  and  nearest  form  of  the  thought  is  that  by  which 
the  Three  are  necessarily  conceived  of  as  equally  locally  present 
everywhere.  Above  that  is  the  thought  of  their  moral  unity 
of  Will,  and,  consequently,  of  Operation.  But  the  thought  of 
Their  indivisible  and  inseparable  Unity,  as  They  are  ahsoluiely 
and  in  themselves,  in  the  senses  alike  of  Existence,  Presence,  and 
Operation,  is  quite  consistent  with  the  thought  of  a  special 
manifestation,  relatively  to  us,  of  One  Person  (i.  e.  the  Second) 
moi-e  than  the  Others,  whether  in  presence  or  in  operation  ;  or, 
if  the  expression  be  preferred,  a  special  manifestation  of  the 
Godhead,  in  presence  and  in  operation,  through  the  Second 
Person,  Whose  function  it  is,  as  the  Image  of  God,  to  reveal  and 
to  exhibit  God  to  the  creature.  St.  Hilar,  Pictav.  Be  Trinitate, 
VIII.  51  [Mifjne,  273),  says  the  Father  '  videtur  in  viso,  operatur 
in  operante,  loquitur  in  loquente/  i.  e.  in  the  Son.  See  also 
a  fine  passage  in  St.  Augustine,  Be  Trinitate,  II.  v.  9,  on  the  Una 
voluntas  Patris  et  Filii  et  inseparabilis  operatio,  and  the  con- 
sequent share  of  the  Son  in  His  own  Mission  and  Incarnation. 
See  also  ifjid.  x.  18.  The  classical  passage  in  English  theology  on 
the  7repi)(wp>;(ris  is  that  with  which  Bishop  Bull  closes  his  great 
work  in  Befence  of  the  Nicene  Faith,  Book  IV.  ch.  iv.  §  9-14. 

Note  IX.  §  93. 

The  title  AixjXAi  helo^igs  especially  to  the  Son. 

There  is  much  that  is  valuable  on  this  point  in  the  Commen- 
tary n])on  the  Apostles^  Creed  by  Dr.  Thomas  Jackson,  Dean  of 
Peterborough,  1639  ;  see  Bk.  VII.  ch.  xxxvi.  §  3-7  :  'That  this 
name  Adonai  is  so  peculiar  to  the  Son  of  God  as  6  Aoyo?  is,  I 
dare  not  adirm  :  for  6  Ao'yos  doth  nowhere,  to  my  remembrance, 


504  The  Son  especially  entitled  A  DONAi.  [app. 

denote  any  other  Person  in  the  blessed  Trinity  besides  the  Son, 
whereas  the  name  Adonai  is  an  expression  which  many  times 
refers  unto  the  Trinity  or  Divine  nature.  .  .  .  But  in  many 
passages  of  the  Old  Testament  both  names  are  expressed  ac- 
cording" to  their  proper  consonants.  And  in  all  these  places 
the  name  Adonai  refers  only  to  the  Son,  as  the  name  of  four 
letters  denotes  the  Father.  As  in  Ps.  ex.  i.  .  .  .  T  durst  not  have 
been  so  bold  as  to  have  gathered  this  general  rule  from  my  own 
observation,  unless  I  had  found  it  excellently  observed  and 
proved  at  large  by  Petrus  Faber,  in  his  Dodecamenon,  cap.  8.' 
On  Joshua  vii.  7  he  [ibid.)  quotes  Masius,  Comment,  in  Josuam^ 
as  follows  :  '  Joshua  calls  God  by  two  names  .  .  .  Adonai,  Je- 
Jiovah.  The  former  setteth  out  God's  ruling  power,  the  latter 
hath  respect  to  God's  essence.  .  .  .  Seeing  Adonai  hath  an  eye  to 
God's  ruling  power,  it  agrees  manifestly  to  the  Son,  and  repre- 
sents him  to  us,  by  whom  as  God  the  Father  made  the  world, 
so  he  ruleth  it.  In  this  point  the  diviner  sort  of  Hebrew 
authors  (diviniores  Hebraeorum  philosophi),  called  cahalists,  as- 
sent to,  as  when  they  teach  that  the  name  Adotiai  is  as  it  were 
the  key  by  which  entrance  is  opened  to  God  Jehovah ;  that  is, 
to  Godj  as  it  were  hid  in  His  own  essence  ;  and  that  it  is  the 
treasure  in  which  these  things  bestowed  on  us  by  Jehovah  are 
all  deposited  ;  and  that  moreover  it  denoteth  the  great  Steward 
(oeconomon  ilium  magnum)  who  disposeth  of  all,  and  nourisheth 
and  quickcneth  all  things  under  Jehovah ;  and  finally,  that  no 
man  can  approach  near  Jehovah  but  by  Adonai,  because  there 
is  no  other  way  or  course  at  all  to  come  to  him ;  and  that  there- 
fore the  Church  thus  begins  her  holy  prayers :  "Adonai,"  that  is, 
"Lord,  open  my  lips,  and  my  mouth  shall  shew  forth  thy  praise." 
These  and  such-like  passages  are  extant  in  the  book  entitled 
"The  Gate  of  Light,"  and  in  the  book  called  U^ID^n  D^,  that 
is,  "  The  Name  explicated."  ' 

Again,  Book  XI.  ch.  vii. :  '  The  name  Jehovah,  which  is  usually 
rendered  Kvpios,  Bominus,  or  Lord  [Lord],  is  alike  common  to 
every  person  in  the  holy  Trinity,  as  expressing  the  nature  of  the 
Godhead — he  that  is  leinrj  itself ;  howbeit,  even  this  name  is 
sometimes  in   peculiar  sort  attributed   unto   Christ.     But  that 


MOTE  X.]  Chrisfs  Commission  to  the  wJiole  CJmrch.  505 

Christ,  or  the  Son  of  God,  is  in  these  places  personality  meant, 
this  must  he  gathered  from  the  snhject,  or  special  circumstances 
of  the  matter,  not  from  the  name  or  title  itself.  But  the  name 
Adonai,  which  properly  signifies  lord  or  kinr/,  as  fiaatXiVi  in 
Greek  doth  (implying  as  much  as  the  pillar,  ov  foundation  of  the 
people),  is  the  peculiar  title  of  the  Son  of  God,  or  of  God  in- 
carnate. And  for  attrihuting  this  title  unto  Christ  as  his 
peculiar,  the  apostle  St.  Paul  had  a  good  warrant  out  of  the 
prophetical  writings,  especially  the  Psalms.  .  .  .  This  title  of 
Lord — Adonai — is  used  most  frequently  in  those  psalms  which 
contain  the  most  pregnant  prophecies  of  Christ  or  the  jMcssias' 
exaltation.  [Jackson  then  refers  to  Psalms  ii,  xlv,  ex,  Ivii,  cviii, 
and  proceeds].  These  fundamental  points  of  faith  arc  clear  from 
this  collation  of  Scripture  :  first,  That  Adonai,  or  Lord,  was  the 
known  title  of  the  Messias,  whom  the  Jews  expected  in  our 
Saviour's  time ;  and  this  was  the  reason  that  the  Pharisees  had 
not  a  word  to  answer  or  rejoin  unto  our  Saviour  when  he 
avouched  that  the  Messias  was  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  because 
David  in  spirit  called  him  (Adonai)  Lord.  Matt.  xxii.  45.  The 
second.  That  he  that  was  Adonai,  or  the  Messias,  was  likewise 
Jehovah,  truly  God,  because  David  did  not  in  s])irit  only  call 
him  Lord,  but  did  in  spirit  worship  him  as  his  Lord  and  God, 
with  the  best  sacrifice  that  he  could  devise,  as  appears  from 
psalm  Ivii.  8.' 

On  Malachi  iii.  i  Dr.  Pusey  writes :  '  He  Who  should  come 
was  the  Lord,  again  Almighty  God,  since,  in  usage  too,  none 
else  is  called  "  the  Lord,"  as  none  else  can  be ; '  and  notes  that 
Malachi's  phrase  plt^H  is  elsewhere  used  only  in  Ex.  xxiii.  17  ; 
xxxiv.  23  ;  Isa.  i.  24  ;  iii.  J  ;  x.  16,  33  ;  xix.  4  ;  which  passages 
see,  for  their  decisive  identification  of  plt^H  with  Je/iovah  of 
Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel. 

Note  X.  §  157. 

Christ  gave  His  great  Commission  to  the  Church  as  a  whole. 

A  considerable  volume  might  be  written  on  the  unhappy 
practical  results  that  have  followed,  in  the  long  history  of  the 


5o6      Christ's  Commission  and  Gift  of  the  Holy    [app. 

Churcli,  from  misrendering-s  of  important  words  and  phrases  in 
Holy  Scripture — such  e.  g".  as  the  '  Ipsa  conteret  caput  tuum '  of 
Gen.  iii.  15,  or  the  ' ona  fokV  {Vvlg.  unnm  ovile)  of  St.  John  x. 
16 — and  from  misconceptions  of  important  passag-cs  or  incidents 
which,  taken  up  and  repeated  by  one  writer  after  another 
without  examination,  have  given  currency  to  theories  and 
doctrines  unbalanced  and  defective  if  not  erroneous.  Of  this 
last  kind  is  the  very  g-eneral  failure  not  only  to  insist  on  but 
even  to  perceive  the  sufficiently  evident  and  certainly  not  un- 
important fact  that  the  great  words  of  the  Easter-Night  Com- 
mission [St.  John  XX.  21),  As  My  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send 
I  yon  .  .  .  Beceive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost :  Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit, 
&c.,  were  spoken,  not  to  the  Apostles  only,  but  to  the  then 
Church  collectively,  as  a  corporate  whole,  the  Body  of  Christ. 
The  following  facts  bearing  upon  the  right  appreciation  of  this 
point  must  be  carefully  observed  : — 

1.  The  similar  language  first  uttered  to  St.  Peter,  St.  Matt. 
xvi.  18,  as  the  then  representative  and  nucleus  of  the  Church 
that  was  to  be,  the  rock  on  which  it  was  to  be  built  (for  such 
is  the  plain  natural  sense  of  our  Lord's  allusion  to  the  name 
He  had  Himself  given  him),  had  been  repeated  {St.  Matt,  xviii. 
17),  and  with  renewed  promise,  to  the  Church  collective.  To 
have  restricted  it,  when  used  on  the  third  occasion,  to  the 
Apostles  only,  would  have  been  a  retrograde  step.  The  Power 
of  the  Keys  was,  in  fulfilment  of  the  two  previous  promises — 
observe  the  future  tenses  in  St.  Matt.  xvi.  and  xviii. — now,  the 
first  moment  it  was  possible,  actually  vested  in  the  Body,  for 
exercise  by  the  Body  through  its  duly  appointed  and  recognised 
organs  and  officers. 

2.  St.  Lnlce  xxiv.  '^'^  &c.  and  St.  John  xx.  19  &c.  unquestion- 
ably refer  to  the  same  occasion,  viz.  the  first  meeting  of  the 
assembled  disciples  after  the  Crucifixion,  the  meeting  on  the 
Easter-Night.  In  describing  those  who  were  present,  St.  John 
uses  the  general  term  disciples,  including,  of  course,  by  implica- 
tion the  Apostles  in  his  special  note  that  the  one  absentee  was 
Thomas.  St.  Luke  expressly  says  that  the  company  gathered 
together,   to    which    the    two    returning    from    Emmaus  joined 


NOTE  X.]       GJiost  ivcrc  to  the  zvhole  CJmrch.  507 

themselves,   was    the    eleven,   and    tiie^i    that    weee    with 

TUEM. 

3.  The  post- Ascension  meeting",  Acts  i.  13,  &c.,  in  the  upper 
room,  prol)al)ly  the  larf/e  vpper  room  fio-nished  which  was  the 
scene  of  the  Last  Supper,  and,  very  possibly,  was  in  the  house  of 
Mary,  the  mother  of  John  Mark  and  sister  of  Joses  and 
Barnabas,  is  expressly  stated  to  have  been  a  collective  meeting-. 
And,  under  the  guidance  of  St.  Peter,  it  performed  a  very 
solemn  corporate  act  in  the  election  of  St.  Matthias,  such  as  it 
could  hardly  have  done  save  by  virtue  of  the  Commission  of 
St.  Jo/m  XX.  21. 

4.  A  close  study  of  the  passage,  (the  connection  of  which  is 
impaired  by  the  break  between  the  first  and  second  chapters  of 
the  Acts,}  and  especially  of  the  Greek  o^  Acts  i.  13,  14,  15,  and 
ii.  I,  points  irresistibly  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Pentecostal 
Gift  also  was  bestowed  on  the  Church  as  a  whole,  and  not  on 
the  Apostles  exclusively.  'There  is  the  same  emphatic  state- 
ment, in  almost  the  same  words,  of  the  asmntjUnrj  of  all,  with 
one  accord,  in  one  and  the  same  place,  in  the  account  of  the 
Pentecostal  meeting-  as  there  is  in  that  of  the  post-Ascension 
meeting.  It  is  certainly  more  natural  to  understand  the  em- 
phatic all  of  the  first  verse  of  the  second  chapter,  of  the  larg-cr 
number,  the  Imndred  and  tioentij  at  least,  whose  constituent 
elements,  so  representative  in  character,  had  been  specially 
enumerated  a  few  verses  before,  than  to  restrict  it  to  the  twelve 
Apostles  on]3\ 

'  Again  ;  If  the  Church  as  a  whole,  the  original  body  of  the 
first  believers,  did  not  receive  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  Easter- 
night  and  at  Pentecost,  Ijut  the  Apostles  only,  when  did  they 
receive  it?  Thougli  doubtless  baptized  with  the  preliminary 
baptism  of  John  unto  repentance,  it  does  not  appear  that  they 
ever  received  Christian  Baptism,  as  did  the  three  thousand  who 
were  added,  not  to  the  Apostles,  but  to  the  Church,  after  St. 
Peter's  sermon.  There  is  absolutely  no  indication  of  tlie  ex- 
elusive  bestowal  of  the  Baptism  ^vith  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire 
on  the  Apostles  only,  and  its  subsequent  bestowal,  by,  through, 
or  from  them,  on  the   rest  of  the  first  believers ;   but,  on  the 


5o8   Christ  gave  His  Spirit  to  the  whole  Church,  [app. 

contrary,  every  indication  of  their  having-  received  the  Gift  at 
one  and  the  same  time.  The  idea  of  such  a  distinction  would 
probahly  not  have  occurred  to  the  first  or  second  g-eneration  of 
believers.  It  is  altogether  a  later  growth  ;  natural  indeed,  be- 
cause the  Gift,  originally  bestowed  on  the  Body,  was,  as  the 
Church  grew,  bestowed  on  new  converts,  through  Baptism  and 
Confirmation,  by  the  authorized  officers  of  the  Body  ;  that  is,  by 
the  Body,  or^  more  exactly,  by  the  Head  and  the  Body  acting  as 
one  indivisible  organism,  through  the  organs  of  the  Body. 

^  A  yet  further  argument,  and  one  (it  would  seem)  of  some 
force,  may  be  drawn  from  the  consideration  that  there  would 
have  been  somewhat  of  inappropriateness,  to  say  the  least,  in 
St.  Peter's  quotation  of  the  prophecy  by  Joel  of  the  great  dis- 
tinctive blessing  of  the  New  Covenant  as  then  and  there,  in- 
cipiently,  fulfilled,  if  a  passage  which  promises  an  outpouring- 
ujion  all  flesh  .  .  .  sons  caul  daiujhters  .  .  .  yoimg  men  and  old  men 
.  .  .  servants  and  handmaideiis,  had  been  realized  only  in  the 
persons  of  the  Twelve.  What  assurance  would  a  gift  limited  to 
the  officers  of  the  Church  have  given  to  others,  as  yet  outsiders, 
that  they  also,  upon  repentance  and  Baptism,  might  receive  the 
Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Or  what  meaning,  upon  the  narrower 
exposition,  can  we  attach  to  the  words,  For  the  Promise — i.  e.  the 
Promised  Gift — (compare  the  Greek  of  Acts  ii.  39  with  that  of 
i.  4,  and  the  'Tu  rite  Promissum  Patris'  of  the  Veni  Creator^ — 
is  unto  you  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even 
as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call  ? 

'  Moreover,  it  is  to  be  noticed,  whatever  it  may  be  worth, 
that  the  languages  miraculously  spoken  were  certainly  more 
than  twelve  in  number.  We  must  suppose,  surely,  that  what 
actually  took  place  was  not  an  unmeaning  display  of  miraculous 
powers  in  unintelligible  speech,  but  that  various  groups,  of 
men  of  various  languages  among*  the  multitudes  who  thronged 
the  Holy  City  and  the  Temple  at  a  great  festival,  found  them- 
selves severally  addressed  in  their  oton  tongues  wherein  they  were 
horn,  by  one  or  more  of  these  Galila^an  Christians  who  spoke  to 
them  the  wonderful  works  of  God  in  the  Death  and  Resurrection 
and  Ascension  of  the  Christ,  which  stupendous  facts,  with  the 


NOTE  XI.]      The  'Babylon '  of  the  Apocalypse.  509 

talk  about  which  the  whole  city  would  be  ringing-,  were  attested 
by  the  miracle  before  them. 

*  And,  lastly,  to  mention  another  point  in  the  same  line  with 
our  present  argument;  after  the  first  touch  of  persecution,  when 
Peter  and  John  had  been  put  in  hold  for  a  night,  and  brought 
up  next  morning  before  the  Sanhedrim,  we  read  i^Acts  iv.)  that 
being  let  f/o  they  tvent  to  their  oton  company,  and  o-eporfed  all  that 
the  chief  priests  and  elders  had  said  unto  them,  and  that  they, 
when  they  heard  that,  lifted  up  their  voice  to  God  with  one  accord, 
and  prayed  that  pra}^er  to  which  was  vouchsafed  an  almost 
second  Pentecost,  so  that  the  place  was  shaken  loherein  they  were 
gathered  together,  and  they  tvere  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  they  spiahe  the  Word  of  God  loith  boldness.  And  the  multitude 
of  them  that  believed  ivere  of  one  heart  and  soul.  This  again  does 
not  read  as  if  the  company  assembled  were  only  the  remaining 
ten  Apostles. 

'  We  conclude  then  that  the  great  endowments  of  the  Lord's 
abiding  Presence  and  the  indwelling  Life  of  His  inbreathed 
Spirit  were  bestowed,  not  on  the  Apostles  only,  not  on  the 
Apostles  first,  and  through  them  on  the  Body,  but  at  once  on 
the  whole  Church  as  a  Body,  and  on  the  Apostles  in  and  with, 
and  as  part,  albeit  the  most  highly  organised  and  vital  part,  of 
the  Body  mystical  of  the  Christ.'  (From  a  Sermon,  by  the 
present  writer,  as  Select  Preacher,  before  the  University  of 
Oxford,  Oct.  23,  1881.) 

Note  XL  §  171. 

The  ^ great  city,^  the  ^Babylon,'  of  the  Apocalypse  was 
Jerusalem. 

I  confess  it  has  long  seemed  to  me,  as  an  independent  but 
earnest  student  of  the  Apocalypse — the  very  absurdities  written 
about  which  create  a  deeper  interest  in  it,  and  a  stronger  desire 
to  revindicate  its  own  ])lain  and  direct  but  very  solemn  and  awful 
meaning — that  it  is  demonstrable,  from  the  Book  itself,  that  the 
great  city  so  repeatedly  spoken  of,  and  identified  with  the  Harlot 
Woman,  is  none  other  than  the  old,  the  earthly,  the  apostate. 


510  The  'Babylon  '  of  the  Apocalypse  is,  [app. 

the  doomed  Jerusalem  of  a.d.  30-70,  and  not  Rome  Pagan  at 
all ;  and  only  Rome  Papal  by  secondary  and  analogical  applica- 
tion, such  as  may  have  touched,  and  may  yet  touch,  in  very 
varying  degrees  of  intensity,  but  in  every  case  with  very  solemn 
reality,  the  Christian  Church  of  very  various  ages  and  countries. 
The  scanty  limits  of  a  note  preclude  a  full  treatment  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  but  I  would  ask  the  candid  student  to  consider  the  follow- 
ing points,  in  the  light  especially  of  the  now  very  generally 
accepted  earlier  date  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  of  its  contemporane- 
ousness (speaking  generally)  with  the  Epistles  of  St.  James, 
St.  Peter,  and  to  the  Hebrews. 

Two  '  cities,'  and  two  only,  are  spoken  of  and  sharply  con- 
trasted  in  the  Apocalypse,   the  old  Jerusalem   and    the  new  ^ 

'  Kaii'77,  not  via,  like  oiipavus  Kaivus  koX  7^  Kaivrj,  implying  the  contrast,  not  of 
juxtaposition,  but  of  related,  i.  e.  continuous  succession  and  substitution,  the  old 
being  removed  and  transfigured  into  the  new.  If  the  neiv  city  was  a  Jerusalem, 
the  word  Kaivus  really  carries  within  it  the  proof  that  the  old  was  a  Jerusalem  also. 
See  Trench,  N.  T.  Synonyms,  Second  Series.  The  organic  vital  connection  be- 
tween the  old,  which  was  dissolved  and  perished,  lay  in  the  believing  remnant,  the 
eK\oyr],  the  dnapxri,  the  Hundred  and  Forty-four  Thousand,  who  were  contributed 
by  the  old  Jerusalem  to  the  making  of  that  eh  Kaivos  dvOpaiiros  of  Ej)h.  ii.  15, 
which  is  the  Israel  of  God,  Gal.  vi.  16.  The  same  contrast,  it  should  be  observed, 
runs  through  St.  Paul's  language  in  Gal.  iv.  22-31.  It  was,  in  fact,  very  early 
familiar  to  the  Christian  thought  of  the  first  generation.  It  is  at  least  arguable 
that  ^  kv  BalBvXaivt  avve/cXeKTrj  of  I  Pet.  v.  13  is  really  another  example  of  an 
early  Christian  symbolical  identification  of  the  city,  which  they  knew  to  be  doomed 
for  its  apostasy,  with  '  Babylon,'  as  with  '  Sodom  '  and  '  Egypt '  in  Bev.  xi.  8. 
The  accompanying  salutation  of  MapKos  6  vlos  /xov  looks  like  it.  Mark's  home  was 
at  Jerusalem,  in  that  house  in  which  was,  very  probably,  the  large  upper  room 
which  was  both  the  scene  of  the  Last  Supper  and  the  first  rendezvous  and  head- 
quarters of  the  Christians,  and  from  which  it  is  very  possible  St.  Peter  was 
actually  writing.  Even  those  who  (wrongly,  as  I  think)  maintain  '  Babylon  '  to 
be  Pagan  Rome,  admit  that  its  use  here  is  symbolical.  But  it  may  be  replied 
witii  much  force  to  those  who  maintain  that  view,  that,  if  so,  the  destruction  of 
the  Apocalyptic  Babylon  must  be  an  event  yet  future.  Nothing  at  all  comparable 
to  it  has  ever  yet  happened  to  Rome,  Pagan  or  Papal ;  it  did  happen  to  the 
Jerusalem  of  A.D.  70.  I  would  ask  the  unprejudiced  reader  to  take  notice,  in 
weighing  the  arguments  of  writers  who  maintain  that  the  N.  T.  Babylon  is 
Rome,  that  all  which  have  any  weight  or  veri-similitude  apply,  in  the  same  kind 
of  sense,  with  much  greater  force  to  Jerusalem,  and  that  many  which  do  not 
suit  Rome  at  all,  or  only  with  a  twist,  suit  Jerusalem  obviously  and  naturally. 
The  mistake  about  the  date  of  the  Apocalypse  was  clearly  the  first  origin  of  tlie 
mistaken  interpretation,  which  we  observe  early;  e.  g.  TertuUian,  Adv.  Judaeos, 
9 :  '  Sic  et  Babylon  apud  Joannem  nostrum  Eomae  urbis  figura  est,  proinde  et 


NOTE  XI.]       priiiiarily,  the  old  y erusalem,  511 

The  contrast  first  appears  in  the  message  to  Philadelphia. 
It  is  between  them  of  the  synagogue  of  Satan,  which  say  they  are 
Jews,  and  arc  not,  and  the  clfy  of  my  God,  the  Neio  Jerusalem,  iii. 
9,  12. 

The  old  'city'  is  first  mentioned  in  xi.  2,  where  the  epithet 
Ti]v  ayiav  and  the  mention  of  the  Temple  combine  to  identify  it 
with  the  old  Jerusalem.  In  xi.  8  it  is  called  ?;  ttoAis  7}  /aeydA?;, 
and  is  again  distinctly  identified  with  Jerusalem  by  the  addition 
which  spiritually  is  called  Sodom  and  Egypt,  where  also  their  Lord 
was  crucified.  In  eight  other  places  the  great  city  is  spoken  of, 
viz.  xiv.  8;  xvi.  19;  xvii.  18  ;  xviii.  10.  16,  18,  19,  21.  The 
epithet  //  ixeyuKr],  in  fact,  becomes  speciKc  and  distinctive,  and 
very  evidently  applies  only  to  one  and  the  same  city  throughout. 
A  close  examination  will  show  that  there  is  really  no  doubt  of  this. 
But  in  xiv.  8,  the  anticipatory  announcement  of  her  fall,  the 
great  city  is  expressl}^  called  Bahylon,  i.  e.  in  the  same  symbolical 
sense  in  which  it  had  before  been  sinritually  called  Sodom  and 
Elgypt.  In  xvi.  19,  while,  in  respect  of  the  effects  of  the 
earthquake  it  is,  by  separate  mention,  contrasted  with  the  cities 
of  the  Gentiles — a  contrast  which  points  to  Jerusalem — it  is 
again  expressly  identified  with  Babylon.  In  xvii.  5,  the  name 
of  the  Harlot  is  Bahylon  the  great.  Here  the  epithet  57  [xeydXr] 
identifies  her  with  1)  ttoAis  ?/  fx^yaXr]  of  xi.  8,  etc.  We  can  hardly 
doubt  the  reference  to  Isa.  i.  21,  Iloto  is  the  faithful  city  become 
an  harlot!  It  was  full  of  judgment ;  Righteousness  lodged  in  it ; 
lut  novo  murderers,  any  more  than  the  reference  in  xi.  8  to  Isa.  i. 


magnae  et  regno  superbae  et  sanctorum  debellatricis.'  But  the  early  history  of 
the  Apocalypse  is  obscure.  It  served,  no  doubt,  its  immediate  purpose  ;  but  it 
had  no  wide  circulation  in  the  early  church.  When  it  became  more  generally 
known  it  was,  at  first,  received  with  hesitation.  By  the  time  it  was  generally 
known  and  acknowledged,  its  original  purpose  had  been  wholly  served,  and  then 
practically  forgotten,  in  the  clean  sweep  made  of  the  old  Jerusalem.  Another 
great  persecuting  city  had,  by  that  time,  fully  declared  its  hostility  to  Chris^t  and 
His  Church  ;  and  Pagan  Rome  and  its  woildwide  power  was,  to  Christians  of  the 
fcecond  and  tliird  century,  '  I'eunemi.'  What  more  natural  than  that,  when  the 
Apocalypse  came  into  their  hands,  they  .should  aj)ply  it  to  Rome  and  read  in  it 
the  assurance  of  Christ's  ultimate  and  complete  victory  ?  And  they  were  right, 
in  a  8en.se,  in  so  doing;  and  only  wiong  in  not  knowing,  or  not  realising,  that 
there  had  been  already  a  decisive  and  infinitely  important  fulfilment. 


512  The  'Babylon  '  of  the  Apocalypse  is,  [app. 

lo.  The  biblical  fitness  of  the  epithet  to  the  spiritual  fornication 
and  adultery  of  that  evil  and  adulterous  generation  cannot  be 
doubted,  Tlie  sin  described  was  one  of  which  no  pagan  city, 
only  one  which  had  once  been  the  chosen  of  the  Lord,  could  really 
be  g'uilty.  But  it  was  very  distinctly  the  sin  of  that  old 
Jerusalem  with  which  the  New  Jerusalem  is  contrasted  as  the 
Bride,  the  LainVs  loife^.  Xvii.  i8  again  identifies  the  Harlot 
Babylon  with  ?/  ttoAis  j;  \i.iy6Xr\\  and,  again,  xviii.  2,  lO,  1 6,  19, 
10,  21.  The  common  epithet,  7}  ixeydXr],  thus  so  emphatically 
repeated,  really  binds  together  in  absolute  identity  the  earthly 
Jerusalem  and  the  Apocalyptic  Babylon,  The  additional  epithet 
of  xviii.  10,  ■>)  TTokis  //  l(Txvpa  (not  mighty,  but  strong),  was  sin- 
gularly applicable  to  Jerusalem,  as  Titus  aud  his  legions  found 
to  their  cost. 

How  is  it  that  this  identification,  which  clears  away  innumer- 
able difficulties  and  supplies  the  real  key  to  the  meaning  of  the 
Book,  has  been  so  generally  overlooked  ?  Probably  from  two 
principal  causes,  i.  The  Harlot's  being  seated  upon  the  scarlet- 
colouredj  seven-headed  Beast  (xvii,  3),  or  upon  the  seven  moun- 
tains, xvii.  9.  For  the  Beast  of  xiii,  i  is  the  then  pagan  world- 
power,  the  Roman  Empire,  really  animated  and  worked  by  the 
Dragon,  the  Prince  of  the  World  {St.  John  xii.  30  and  xiv,  30, 
where  see  Westcott  in  Speaker  s  Commentary),  and  upheld  by  the 
other,  the  two  horned  Iamb-like  Beast  of  xiii.  11,  i.e.  the  false 
idolatrous  religion  of  Paganism,  which  then  insisted  on  the 
worship  of  the  Emperor,  the  embodiment  of  the  Beast,  an  insist- 
ance  which  made  martyrs  both  among  Jews  and  Christians.  2. 
The  greatness  and  splendour  of  the  Babylon  described,  and  her 
world-wide  relations  and  influence. 

As  to  I  :  Her  beiug  seated  upon  the  Beast  indicates  a  relation 
certainly,  i.  e,  of  being  really  supported,  not  by  God,  but  by  the 
world-power.  The  base  apostate  worldly  Judaism  of  that  period, 
especially  of  the  Jewish  kinglets,  and  the  dominant  parties, 
whether  courtly  Herodians,  popular  Pharisees,  or  Sadductean 
High  Priests,  really  did  rest  upon,  depended,  for  its  very  exist- 

'  Compare  Isa.  Ivii.  8;  Jerem.  ii.  2,  20;  iii.  throughout;  iv.  30;  xi.  15;  and 
xiii.  27:  also  Ezelciel,  chs,  xvi,  xxii,  xxiii,  and  xxiv,  throughout. 


NOTE  xr.]     primarily,  the  old  Jerusalem.  513 

ence  in  power  and  supremacy  upon  the  Roman  world-power. 
And  they  knew  it ;  and  the  Romans  knew  it,  and  despised  them 
accordingly.  But  this  relation  points,  at  the  same  time,  to  dis- 
tinctness, not  to  identifi/  ;  and  passed  easily  into  that  relation  of 
hostility  (xvii.  16)  by  which  t/ie  tea  horns,  and  the  beast,  hated 
the  harlot,  and  made  her  desolate  and  naked,  and  ate  her  flesh,  and 
burned  her  utterly  toUhflre,  loheri  God  put  it  in  their  hearts  to  do 
his  mind  .  .  until  the  words  of  God  [Levit.  xxvi.,  Dent,  xxviii.,  St. 
Matt,  xxiv.)  should  be  fulfilled. 

As  to  2  :  {a)  The  great  harlot  sat  (xvii.  i)  upon  many  waters, 
i.e.  (15)  peoples,  and  muUltudcs,  and  nations,  and  tongues.  So, 
through  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  then  spread  through  the 
whole  Roman  olkovix^vt]  and  beyond  it,  Jerusalem  and  Judaism, 
did  sit,  as  truly,  though  not  in  the  same  way,  as  Imperial 
Rome  rested  upon  and  ruled  over  her  subject  peoples.  See  the 
account  of  the  Day  of  Pentecost ;  and  Josephus'  description  of 
the  representative  gatherings  at  the  great  Jewish  Festivals. 

(1^)  The  harlot  is  the  great  city  lohich  holds  a  royal,  or  queenly, 
position  (?/  (xovaa  (SaaiXeiav)  over  the  kings  of  the  earth  (xvii.  18). 
We  have  already  seen  that  the  one  city  which  in  the  Apocalypse 
is  called  the  great  is  identified  with  Jerusalem.  The  question 
here  is.  Who  are  intended  by  ol  jSacnkeU  t^s  yrjs  ?  In  connection 
with  which  it  should  be  remarked  that  the  true  estimate  of  the 
primary  purpose  and  reference  of  the  Apocalypse  has  probably 
been  very  much  hindered  by  the  frequent  translation  of  y?}  by 
'  earth,'  where  the  reference  really  is  the  restricted  one,  to  the 
'  land,'  i.  e.  of  Judsea  and  Palestine.  The  ordinary  reader  has 
been  thus  thrown  far  a-field,  and  has  lost  the  scent  altogether. 
Setting  aside  the  Epistles,  in  which,  from  the  nature  of  their 
subjects  and  their  being  addressed  to  Churches  out  of  Palestine, 
the  usual  reference  is  naturally  wider,  let  any  one  examine  the 
N.  T.  usage  of  the  word  yrj  in  its  local  or  geographical  sense, 
especially  in  the  phrase  ol  /SacriAets  tt/s  yijs  (as,  for  example,  it  is 
exhibited,  in  a  conspectus,  in  Bruder's  ed.  of  Schviidl^s  Concord- 
ance) and  the  following  results  will  be  apparent: — That,  in  the 
Gospels  and  the  Apocalypse — leaving  out  passages  in  which  the 
frequent  contrast  of  earth  with  heaven,  or  the  addition  of  -naaa, 

Ll 


514  T^^^  Babylon  of  the  Apocalypse  is,         [app. 

o\r],  or  some  equivalent  phrase,  defines  the  wider  use,  and  sug- 
gests the  rendering-  '  earth  '  or  '  world  ' — the  natural,  probable, 
or  even  certain  rendering  is  usually  the  restricted  one,  '  land,' 
the  Land  of  the  Jew^.      Certainly  it  seems  to   me  that  the 

^  Matt.  xvii.  25  :  Of  whom  do  the  Icings  of  the  land  take  tribute  ?  A  reference  to 
the  Galileean  Peter's  personal  knowledge  of  the  usage  of  the  local  kings  and 
tetrarchs  is  more  natural  than  a  wider  one.  Mat.  xxiv.  30  :  Then  shall  all  the 
tribes  of  the  land  mourn  (KuipovTat),  and  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  fjlory;  compared  with  Bev.  i.  17 :  Behold, 
he  Cometh  with  clouds,  and  every  eye  shall  see  him,  and  they  also  which  pierced  him, 
and  all  the  tribes  of  the  land  shall  mourn  (KoipovTai)  because  of  him ;  and  with  the 
parent  passage,  Zech.  xii.  10-14,  which  see,  especially  in  Lxx.  observing  the  Koipovrai 
of  ver.  10,  and  the  Kuif/erai  y  •yrj  (here  unquestionably  the  Jews'  land)  Kara  cpvXoLs 
ipvXds.  But  Matt.  xxiv.  30,  especially  taken  in  connection  with  the  Lord's  solemn 
answer  to  Caiaphas,  xxvi.  64,  refers  to  the  Lord's  coming  in  His  Judgment  of 
Jerusalem.  Matt.  %x\\\.  25  :  iraaav  ttjv  frjv,  with  its  parallels,  Mark  xv.  33,  LuJ:e 
xxiii.  44,  oKtji'  t^v  •yrji',  of  the  miraculous  darkness  at  the  crucifixion,  is  surely  in 
the  restricted  sense,  notwithstanding  the  ■naaav  and  the  oAjji'.  When  St.  Mark, 
a  few  verses  later,  wishes  to  express  a.  wider  reference,  xvi.  15,  his  phrase  is  «iy 
rhv  KoOfiov  anavTa.  Luke  iv.  25,  throughout  all  the  land,  is  yet  restricted,  and 
BO  A.  "V.  And  xviii.  8,  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh  shall  he  find  faith  on  the 
earth,  might  as  well,  or  better,  be  in  the  land.  Certainly  it  is  consistent  with  the 
view  of  this  subject  taken  in  these  Lectures,  that  the  coming  spoken  of  should 
be  the  Lord's  Coming  in  Judgment  on  Jerusalem.  See  the  preceding  verse  (and 
the  clear  reference  to  its  langu3.ge  in  Bev.  vi.  10;  and  xxi.  23)  There  shall  be 
great  distress  in  the  land,  and  wrath  upon  this  peopile.  Here  the  Authorised  Version 
has  land,  for  the  restriction  is  unquestionable,  the  general  distress  of  the  Gentile 
nations  upon  the  earth  being  separately  foretold  in  ver.  26.  The  unrestricted  use 
is  well  marked,  by  iraat]^  and  the  context,  in  ver.  35  ;  for  the  Lord  had  passed,  at 
ver.  34,  from  His  immediate  subject  to  its  awful  future  analogue,  which  is  future 
stiU.  Acts  iv.  26  is  a  serviceable  passage  as  to  the  usage  of  ol  PacnXeii  rrj?  yrjs, 
which  it  quotes  from  Ps.  ii.  i  ;  for,  as  ver.  27  says,  there  was  in  the  movement 
against  Jesus  just  that  combination  of  the  Heathen  with  the  People,  and  of  the 
rulers  (like  Pontius  Pilate)  with  the  Kings  of  the  land  (Herod),  which  the  Psalm 
foretells.  And  it  throws  light  on  Bev.  i.  5  :  Jesus  Christ  .  ,  .  the  first-born  of  the 
dead,  and  the  ruler  of  the  kings  of  the  land.  They  had  combined  against  Him, 
and  would  not  have  Him  to  reign  over  them,  saying,  We  have  no  King  but 
Ccesar ;  but  His  Resurrection  (from  the  sealed  and  guarded  tomb)  showed  His 
lordship  over  them,  and  over  Csesar ;  and  He  had  made  His  believing  people  to 
be  Kings  and  Priests  with  Him  unto  His  God  and  Father.  In  vi,  15,  the  reference 
may  well  be  the  restricted  one.  The  manifest  allusion  to  Isa.  ii.  10-22,  and 
Hosea  x.  8,  looks  like  it.  What  sort  of  men,  morally,  the  kings  of  the  land  were, 
and  the  great  men,  and  the  rich  men,  and  the  chief  captains,  and  the  mighty  men, 
of  the  Jewish  world  of  a.d.  1-70,  we  have  ample  evidence  in  the  New  Testament. 
See  especially,  besides  the  passages  which  refer  to  the  Herods,  Matt,  xxiii.  13-39  ; 
Lvke  vi,  24-26;  xvi.  14-31;  James  i.  10,  11;  ii.  6,  7;  iii.  14  to  v.  6.  The 
following  juxta-position  is  surely  very  curiously  instructive  as  to  whom  the  Seer 


NOTE  XI.]      primarily,  the  old  Jerusalem.  515 

peculiar  phrase  liohh  a  o'oyal poailion,  describes  very  naturally  the 
relation  of  the  Jerusalem  of  that  g-eneration  to  the  kings  of  the 
land.  Not  one  of  them  was  king  of  her,  seated  in  Jerusalem  as  in 
his  own  capital.  That  might  have  been  said  of  Herod  the  Great, 
and,  in  a  greatly  diminished  sense,  of  the  brief  nine  years'  reign 
of  his  son  and  successor  Archelaus.  But  from  a.  d.  6  Judaja  was 
a  Roman  province  ;  while  yet  the  usual  residence  of  the  Governor 
at  Ca}sarea,  and  the  absence  of  any  national  king  at  Jerusalem 
itself,  after  the  subdivision  of  the  original  kingdom  of  Herod 
the  Great  among  his  sons,  the  Tetrarchs,  who  then  became  the 
kings  of  the  land,  combined  to  give  to  the  stately  and  splendid 
city,  still  the  religious  centre,  not  only  of  the  whole  hmd,  but  of 
the  world-scattered  race  of  the  Jews,  just  that  quasi-independent 
and  capital  character  which  is  indicated  by  the  phrase  eyovc^a 
fiamXiiav,  and  which  would  minister  to  at  once  the  pride  and 
the  advantage  of  its  ruling  classes,  among  whom  the  High 
Priest  and  the  Sanhedrim  would  naturally  hold  the  first  place. 
Milman,  Hist,  of  the  Jetvs,  writes  (Book  XII,),  '  The  Sanhedrim 
was  probably  confined  to  its  judicial  duties — it  was  a  plenary 
court  of  justice,  and  no  more — during  the  reigns  of  the  later 
Asmonean  princes,  and  during  those  of  Herod  the  Great  and  his 

describes  as  paralysed  with  fear  at  the  tokens  of  imminent  judgment.  History 
perhaps  furnishes  few  groups  more  likely  to  be  so  affected  than  that  of  which 
Herod  Antipas  was  the  centre  when  he  kept  his  birthday  festival  in  his  castle  of 
Machserus. 

S.  Marc.  vi.  21.  'HpwSj^y  roTs  yfrfffloi^ 
avTov  Sfiirvov  (iro'ift  rots  fifyiardaiv 
avTov  Koi  rots  X'^'^PX"'^  '"^^  '^^ts  irpwrots 
rrji  Ta\i\aias,  K.r.\. 

The  peculiar  word  fxtytarava  occurs  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament  except 
in  liev.  xviii.  23,  where  it  has  a  consistent  and  indeed  identical  meaning.  The 
merchant  princes  who  ministered  to  and  grew  rich  by  the  luxury  and  splendour  of 
the  Jerusalem  of  that  epoch  may  well  have  been  the  great  ones  of  the  land.  Per- 
haps we  have  a  picture  of  on,e  member  of  the  class  in  the  passage  about  the  rich 
man  and  Lazarus,  the  connection  of  which  with  the  preceding  context  can  only  be 
that  it  furnishes  an  example  of  the  prevailing  dishonesty,  worldiiness,  covetous- 
ness,  and  impurity  of  the  upper  classes  of  Jewish  society  at  that  date.  The  level 
of  New  Testament  usage  of  such  a  phrase  .as  ol  0aat\(is  rijs  yfji'  is  illustrated  by 
the  circumstance  that  S.  Mattliew  spe.aks,  ii.  22,  of  Archelaus  reif/niiif/  as  King 
{0aat\(v(i)  ill  the  room  of  his  father  Ilernd,  wliile  the  Komau  authorities  never 
gave  him  the  title  o{  ^acnKtvs,  but  only  that  of  idvapxrjs. 

L  1  2 


Apoc.  vi.  15.  Kai  01  PaffiXtis  ttJ?  yrjs, 
Koi  01  fitytardva,  Kal  01  iT\ov(Ttoi,  Kal 
ol  xt\tapxot,  Kal  ol  Svvaroi,  k.t.\. 


5 1 6  The  Babyloit  of  the  Apocalypse  is,         [app. 

son  Archelaus.  To  the  despotism  of  the  two  latter  there  was 
no  check,  except  aa  appeal  to  Rome.  When  Judsea  became  a 
Roman  province  the  Sanhedrim,  either,  as  is  more  likely,  assumed 
for  the  first  time,  or  recovered, .its  station  as  a  kind  of  senate  or 
representative  body  of  the  nation ;  possessed  itself  of  such  of  the 
subordinate  functions  of  the  government  as  were  not  actually 
administered  by  the  Roman  procurator ;  and  probably,  on 
account  of  the  fi'equent  changes  in  the  person  of  the  high  priest, 
usurped,  in  some  degree,  upon  his  authority.'  These  Rulers  of 
the  Jeios  were  practically  enthroned  in  Jerusalem,  and  supported 
by  the  world-power  of  the  Roman  Beast.  In  them  the  per- 
sonified Jerusalem  {Rev.  xviii.  7)  glorified  herself,  and  waxed 
wanton,  and  said  in  her  heart,  I  sit  a  queen,  and  am  no  widotv 
(though  the  sceptre  was  departed  from  Judah),  and  shall  see  no 
sorrow.  But  it  was  upon  them  that  fell  the  scathing  denuncia- 
tions of  both  the  Baptist  (^S';^.  31att.  iii.,  St.  Luke  in.),  and  the  Christ 
[St.  3Iatt.  xii.,  St.  Lxihe  xi.,  St.  Matt,  xxiii).  It  was  their  doom 
the  Lord  scarcely  veiled  in  the  fateful  Parables  of  St.  Matt.  xxi. 
and  xxii.  It  was  their  sentence  He  judicially  pronounced  at  the 
close  of  His  public  teaching,  as  He  left  the  Temple  for  the  last 
time,  St.  Matt,  xxiii.  35-39.  It  was  the  execution  of  that 
sentence,  within  the  lifetime  of  the  men  before  whom  He  stood, 
that,  in  the  hearing  of  the  seer  of  the  Apocalypse,  He  solemnly 
predicted,  in  answer  to  the  High  Priest's  adjuration  at  His 
Trial  (xxvi.  64). 

if)  The  description  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  the  wail  of 
the  interested  classes  over  the  downfall  of  the  harlot  city,  the 
lament  of  the  kings  of  the  land,  and  the  merchants  of  the  land, 
who  grew  rich  hy  her,  and  the  shipmasters,  and  mariners,  and  as 
many  as  gain  their  living  hy  the  sea,  will  not  be  thought  inap- 
plicable to  the  Jerusalem  of  a.  d.  70  by  any  one  who  has  tried  to 
realise  the  grandeur  of  the  city  at  that  epoch  as  it  is  pictured  in 
the  pages  of  Josephus,  and  who  thinks  of  the  enormous  and  far- 
reaching  traffic  which  the  mere  necessities  of  the  multitudes  of 
her  annual  visitors  must  have  created,  with  the  accumulated 
wealth  and  luxury  to  which  it  must  have  given  rise  for  those 
who  conducted  it.     It  is  not  a  great  mercantile  city  that  is 


NOTE  XI.]      pi'imarily,  the  old  yerusalem.  517 

described.  If  it  were,  the  description  would  suit  Rome  no  better 
than  Jerusalem,  though  it  might  suit  the  Corinth,  or,  still  more 
closely,  the  Alexandria  of  the  day.  It  is  the  description  of 
a  city  which  was  a  large  consumer  of  both  necessaries  and 
luxuries,  and  a  profitable  customer  to  the  merchants  of  these  things  ; 
and  it  suits  Jerusalem  exactly. 

{(T)  And  if  it  be  said  (xviii.  3)  that  all  the  Gentiles  drank  of 
the  lo'ine  of  the  wrath  of  her  fornication,  i.  e.  (I  suppose)  were 
spiritually  injured  and  corrupted  by  the  religious  unfaithfulness 
of  the  Jewish  Church,  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  general  moral 
and  religious  condition  of  the  Jews,  then  in  contact,  thi'ough 
their  dispersion,  with  the  whole  Gentile  world,  was  such  as  to 
operate  to  the  serious  discredit  of  religion  in  the  Gentile  mind, 
and  to  the  grievous  hindrance  of  the  spread  of  Christianity 
among  those  who  ignorantly,  but  very  naturally,  confounded  it 
with  a  Judaism  which  they  had  equal  reason  to  hate  and  to  despise  ? 
The  first  offer  of  the  Gospel  was  made  everywhere  to  the  Jews, 
who  might  have  been  everywhere  its  most  effectual  missionaries. 
How  they,  as  a  race,  rejected  it,  we  know  from  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  And  the  deep-lying  moral  causes  of  that  rejection, 
the  moral  sins  and  defects  in  consequence  of  which,  combined  as 
they  were  with  a  proud,  exclusive,  fanatical,  profession  of  a  true 
religion,  the  very  name  of  God  toas  tjlasj^hemed  among  the  Gentiles 
through  them,  we  learn  from  the  latter  half  of  St.  Paul's  second 
chapter  to  the  Romans.  It  was  an  awful  failure,  after  so  grand 
a  history,  so  long  and  wonderful  a  providential  preparation,  in 
Palestine  and  beyond  it.  It  is  not  surprising  it  should  have 
drawn  after  it  an  awful  judgment ;  a  judgment  felt  even  to  the 
extremest  bounds  of  that  world-wide  system  of  which  Jerusalem 
was  the  centre. 

Another  cause  which  has  contributed  to  the  mistaken  identifi- 
cation of  the  Apocalyptic  Babylon  with  Rome  has  been  the 
exclusive  reference  of  such  passages  as  vi.  9-1 1;  xi,  18;  xv. 
2-4;  xvi.  6;  xvii.  6;  xviii.  20,  24;  xix.  2,  to  Christian  martyrs, 
whereas  the  reference  really  is  to  the  saints  and  mai-tyrs  of  the 
Old  Covenant,  the  great  cloud  of  witnesses  (jxapTvprn'),  the  men  and 
women  of  days  long  past,  of  whom  the  world  was  not  toorthi/. 


5i8      The  Apocalyptic  Babylon  is  ycrusalcm.     [app. 

and  whose  deeds  of  faith  are  celebrated  in  the  eleventh  of 
Hebrews,  The  passage  vi.  9-1 1  seems  clearly  to  recall  our 
Lord's  language  in  8t.  Luke  xviii.  7  :  Shall  not  God  avenge  his 
'own  elect,  which  cry  day  and  night  tinto  him,  though  he  bear  long 
with  them,  ?  1  tell  you  that  he  will  avenge  them  speedily.  The  cry 
for  vengeance  was  a  just  cry ;  yet  it  was  of  the  spirit  of  the  Old 
Dispensation  rather  than  the  New.  It  was  the  echo  of  the 
dying  words  of  that  Zechariah  whom,  in  the  days  of  Joash, 
they  sleio  between  the  altar  and  the  temjjle,  The  Loud  look  ujjon  it, 
and  require  it  (2  Chron.  xxiv.  20-22),  and  to  whose  martyrdom 
the  Lord  specially  referred,  when,  in  His  parting  words  of 
judicial  doom,  He  said  to  the  Jews  of  His  day  that  vjjon  them 
should  come  all  the  righteous  blood  shed  upon  the  earth  .  .  .  Verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  All  these  things  shall  come  ujpon  this  generation, 
upon  that  Jerusalem,  which  killed  the  proj^ihets  and  stoned  them 
that  were  sent  unto  her  {St.  Matt,  xxiii.  34,  &c.).  Different  was 
the  spirit  of  the  first  martyr  of  the  New  Covenant,  who,  after 
the  example  of  His  Master,  prayed  for  his  murderers.  Lord,  lay 
not  this  sin  to  their  charge.  With  the  others  God  bore  long. 
Waiting  was  their  trial.  They  received  not  the  promise:  God 
having  provided  some  better  thing  for  us,  that  they  without  us 
should  not  be  made  perfect.  The  grace  of  perfect  charity  was  a 
gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  (God's  good  things,  St.  Matt.  vii.  11,  com- 
pared with  St.  Luke  xi.  13),  which  gift  could  not  be  until  after 
Jesus  was  glorified  [St.  John  vii.  39),  for  which  reason  he  that 
was  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  greater  than  the  greatest 
of  the  saints  of  old  [St.  Matt.  xi.  11).  They  therefore  must 
wait  for  their  perfecting.  Only  now  were  vjhite  robes  given  unto 
them,  for  they  must  be  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb.  And  even  then  it  was  said  unto  them  that  they 
should  rest  yet  for  a  little  season,  tmtil  their  felloio-servants  also 
and  their  brethren,  St.  Stephen  and  St.  James  and  their  fellow- 
sufierers  at  the  hands  of  Jewish  unbelief,  that  should  be  killed 
as  they  were,  should,  be  ful filed.  In  like  manner,  in  the  seven 
remaining  passages  given  above,  in  which  this  special  sin  of  the 
old  Jerusalem  is  mentioned  as  drawing  down  judgment  upon 
her,   the    reference    is    certainly   to   the   martyrs    of  the    Old 


NOTE  XI.]  Analysis  of  the  Apocalypse.  519 

Covenant,  though  not  always  exclusively,  hut  including  also, 
as  e.g.  in  vi.  11,  ihe  marfi/rs  of  Jesus,  who,  it  is  to  be  observed, 
are  separately  mentioned  in  xvii.  6,  I  saw  the  ivovian  drunken 
with  the  blood  of  the  saints  and  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus.  Here  the 
separate  mention  of  the  two  shows  that  two  distinct  classes  are 
intended,  and  that  the  primary  reference  in  this  and  the  parallel 
places  is  to  the  Old  Testament  saints.  It  is  nothing  less  than 
astonishing  that  this  should  have  been  so  overlooked,  see  e.  g. 
Alford's  note  on  vi.  1 1  ;  but  the  mistake  has  had  a  most  mis- 
leading influence  on  the  interpretation  of  the  Apocalypse.  This 
leading  point  is  made  more  clear  by  a  close  observation  of  the 
passage  in  which  the  Christian  martyrs  are  plainly  spoken  of. 
It  is  XX.  4 :  And  I  saw  thrones^  and  theij  sat  upon  them,  and 
judgment  was  given  unto  them :  and  I  saw  the  souls  of  them  that 
had  been  beheaded  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  arid  for  the  tvord  of 
God,  and  such  as  ivorshipped  not  the  beast,  neither  his  image  .  .  . 
and  they  lived,  and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years.  The 
phrase  1  saio  the  souls  recalls  vi.  9,  and  shows  that  this  is  the 
Christian  counterpart  of  what  the  seer  saw  before.  But  they 
are  not  under  the  altar,  a  phrase  which  recalls  Jewish  associa- 
tions, just  as  beheaded,  a  word  never  used  in  the  earlier  passages, 
points  distinctly  to  martyrdom  at  Roman  hands,  such  as  was 
St.  Paul's.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  enthroned  with  Christ. 
And  the  vision  is  at  a  markedly  later  stage  of  the  divine  dis- 
pensations, after  the  binding  of  Satan  had  introduced  the 
millennial  period,  the  times  of  the  Gentiles. 

I  append  a  brief  analysis  of  the  Apocalypse,  as  referring  in 
its  immediate  and  primary  (but  not  exclusive)  application  to 
Christ's  coming  in  judgment  upon  the  Old  Jerusalem  and  the 
fallen  Church  of  the  Old  Covenant. 

Ch.  iv.  describes  the  scenery  and  setting  of  the  great 
Revelation.  The  first  trumpet-voice  is  probably,  see  i.  10,  that 
of  Jesus.  'O  Ka0?//j.ei-'O9,  visiljle,  human  in  form  (v.  7),  is  the 
representation  of  the  Eternal  Son,  but  regarded  in  Ilis  divine 
nature;  God,  but  'God  of  God.'  It  is  observable  that  in  the 
Apocalypse  the  Father  is  not  distinctly  mentioned  by  that 
personal  name,  except  in  i.  6,  His  Father  (i.  e.  of  Jesus),  and 


520  Analysis  of  [app. 

xiv.  I,  His  FafJier  (i.  e.  of  the  Lamb).  The  Godhead,  the  One 
Divine  Being,  is  spoken  of  throughout  as  (i)  God,  ©eo's,  simply  ; 
or  (2)  as  the  Lord,  AeaTTor-qs,  once,  viz,  by  the  Old  Testament 
martyrs,  vi.  10  (compare  Acts  iv.  24,  and  the  only  other  in- 
stances of  its  use,  both  expressly  of  Christ,  2  Pet.  ii.  i,  and 
Jude  4) ;  (3)  the  Lord  God,  Kvpcos  6  0eo?,  xxii.  5,  6 ;  and  (4)  the 
Lord  God  Ahnightj/,  or  All-rtding ,  6  Kvpios  6  Qebs  6  IlavT0Kp6,Ta>p, 
in  nine  places.  The  Lord  Jesus  in  His  human  nature  is  pre- 
sented separately  and  distinctly,  under  the  symbolical  form  of 
the  slain  Lamb.  The  relation  of  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  to  the 
Godhead  could  be  best  brought  out  in  this  way.  The  recollec- 
tion of  His  visible  humanity  was  at  this  date  fresh  in  the 
memory  of  the  Church  and  of  living  persons.  This  wonderful 
Book,  thus  pi'esenting  Him  distinctly  in  His  humanity,  yet 
identifies  Him  absolutely  with  the  Lord  God,  and  exhibits  Him 
worshipped  as  so  identified;  observe  especially  v.  18-14.  He 
is  the  A  and  XI.  the  Eternal.  To  bring  this  out  would  seem  to 
be  one  great  object  of  the  Book,  an  underlying  link  of  con- 
nection with  the  fourth  Gospel.  And  naturally,  if  it  was  to 
comfort  and  support  Christ's  persecuted  and  sufiering  people 
under  and  through  the  awful  period  of  the  ^Atv//ij  rj  ixeydXt], 
which  not  in  Judsea  only  but  everywhere  preceded  and  ac- 
companied the  great  catastrophe  of  Judaism. 

The  twenty-four  elders  are  the  patriarchs  of  the  Two 
Covenants, 

The  four  living  creatures  represent  the  powers  of  organic 
animated  creature-life. 

Ch.  V.  The  seven-sealed  hooh  is  the  Apocalypse  itself.  The 
Lamh  is  the  Saviour  in  His  human  nature,  worshipped  by  the 
elders,  the  angels,  and  every  creature,  as  identified  with  6 
Ka^?;/xei'os. 

Chs.  vi,  vii.  The  seven  seals  opened,  vi.  First  seal :  The 
rider  on  the  white  horse  is  Jesus,  as  King,  Conqueror  and 
Judge,  cp.  xix.  11.  Second,  third,  and  fourth  seal:  the  agents 
and  instruments  of  Judgment,  War,  Famine,  Pestilence.  Fifth 
seal :  The  cry  for  vengeance  from  the  Old  Testament  martyrs, 
answering  to  the  fourfold  Come  (not  Come  and  see)  of  the  four 


NOTE  XI.]  the  Apocalypse.  521 

living  creatures.  Sixth  seal :  Signs  of  judgment  immediately 
imminent,  cp.  St.  Matt.  xxiv.  29,  8t.  Luke  xxiii.  30,  but  suspended 
for  the  gathering  together  [Matt.  xxiv.  31)  and  sealing  of  the 
elect,  i.  e.  the  believing  remnant  from  among  the  Jews,  the 
tKkoyri  of  Eom.  xi.  5,  7,  the  fwsf -fruit  [a-napxi])  of  Bo7n.  xi.  16 
and  Rev.  xiv.  4.  Vii,  9-1 7  is  a  preliminary  glimpse,  proleptic, 
after  the  manner  of  this  Book,  of  the  great  Gentile  Catholic 
Church,  including,  ver.  13,  the  Christian  martyrs  who  kejit 
coming  (ipxcixevot,  14)  out  of  the  Great  Tribulation,  which  was 
then  actually  going  on. 

Ch.  viii.  The  Seventh  Seal  opened  discloses  the  Seven  Trumpet 
Angels,  the  highest  in  rank,  who  stand  (not  stood)  hefore  God 
(lo-TT/Kacrt,  implying  permanent  place  and  dignity),  of  whom  Gabriel 
is  one,  8t.  Luke  i.  19.  The  Trumpets,  chs.  viii— xi,  disclose  in 
order  the  process  and  method  of  Judgment,  as  the  Vials  the 
actual  execution.  The  first  four  Trumpets  should  be  closely 
compared  with  the  corresponding  Vials,  both  exhibiting  plagues 
on  land,  sea,  waters,  and  celestial  luminaries. 

Ch.  ix.  The  Three  Woes,  introduced  by  the  last  three 
Trumpets.  The  First  Woe  (fifth  Trumpet),  the  army  of  Locusts 
from  the  Abyss,  under  their  king,  Abaddon,  the  angel  of  the 
Abyss.  The  Second  Woe  (sixth  Trumpet),  the  loosing  of  the 
four  angels  from  the  river  Euphrates,  with  their  army  of  horse- 
men. The  fifth  and  sixth  Trumpets  seem  to  be  closely  con- 
nected, and  to  announce  (perhaps)  the  mustering  of  the  hosts  of 
Rome,  the  instruments  of  judgment. 

Ch.  X.  The  Preparation  for  the  Seventh  Trumpet,  which  will 
announce  the  Final  Woe  or  actual  consummation  of  Judgment. 
The  Mighty  Angel  of  x.  i.  Who  is  almost  certainly  the  Son  of 
God  (cp.  i.  15,  16,  and  the  Man  clothed  in  linen  oi  Ban.  x.  and 
xii.),  announces,  ver.  6,  that  there  shall  be  delay  no  longer,  but 
that,  on  the  sounding  of  the  seventh  Trumpet,  the  mystery  of  God 
should  be  finished,  as  declared  to  his  servants  the  prophets. 

Ch.  xi.  1-14.  The  Episode  of  the  Two  Witnesses :  scene, 
Jerusalem.  I  have  no  theory  as  to  whom  we  are  to  understand 
by  the  Two  Witnesses.  They  arc  described  in  language  which 
recalls  at  ouce  Joshua  and  Zerubbabcl  in  the  Book  of  Zechariah, 


522  Analysis  of  [app. 

and  Moses  and  Elijah  of  elder  days.  The  reference  is,  ap- 
parently, to  eminent  witnesses  for  Christ  within  the  doomed 
city  during  the  dark  period  of  its  final  agony.  It  would  seem 
very  probable  that  St.  James  the  Just,  the  abeXcpodeos,  the  first 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem  and  writer  of  the  Epistle,  who  was  martyred 
in  Jerusalem  in  69,  was  one.  The  other  has  been  thought  to 
be  St.  Peter. 

Ch.  xii.  The  Sun-clothed  Woman  (cp.  Joseph's  Dream,  Gen. 
xxxvii.  9),  is  the  Ancient  Church  of  Israel  regarded  as  faithful, 
the  Mother  of  the  Messiah,  her  royal  Man-Chihl,  Whom  the 
devil,  acting  through  Herod  the  Great,  seeks  to  devour.  His 
Incarnation  dethrones  the  devil,  who  is  cast  down  from  heaven 
to  earth,  cp.  Luke  x.  18  ;  John  xii.  31.  But  for  a  short  while, 
i.  e.  up  to  his  millennial  confinement  in  the  Abyss,  he  has  great 
wrath,  and  causes  much  misery  on  earth,  especially  during  the 
6\l^ls  r]  jxeydXr]  (^Matt. -s.xiv.  21 ;  3Iar k  xiii.  19;  Luke  xxi.  23; 
xxiii.  29).  He  persecutes  the  woman  and  the  faithful  remnant 
{Rev.  xii.  13-17) ;  but  a  place  of  refuge  was  prepared  (6  and  14, 
compared  with  3Iatt.  xxi  v.  15,  &c.)  and  the  Christians  escaped, 
as  we  know,  from  the  beleaguered  city  to  Bella. 

Ch.  xiii.  The  Beast,  who,  like  the  Dragon,  has  seven  heads 
and  ten  horns,  is  the  then  world-power,  imperial  Rome,  seen 
also  in  vision  by  Daniel,  ch.  vii.  It  combines  the  features  of  the 
preceding  world-powers,  the  Macedonian,  the  Medo-Persiau,  and 
the  Babylonian,  the  Leopard,  the  Bear,  and  the  Lion.  Its  in- 
visible animating  power  is  the  devil,  ver.  2.  It  persecutes  both 
Jews  and  Christians.  The  two-horned  lamb-like  Beast,  ver.  11, 
is  the  false  idolatrous  religion  of  Paganism,  the  false  prophet  of 
xvi.  13;  xix.  20;  XX.  10.  It  enforces,  on  Jews  and  Christians, 
the  worship  of  the  emperor  and  his  image,  as  the  impersonation 
of  the  Beast.  The  number  of  the  Beast,  666,  is  the  numerical 
value  of  the  Hebrew  letters  of  CAESAR  NERO. 

Ch.  xiv.  The  contrasted  Vision  of  the  Heavenly  Power,  the 
Lamb  and  His  company  stationed  on  Mount  Sion.  The  an- 
nouncement of  the  fall  of  Babylon  in  ver.  8  is  proleptic,  antici- 
patory of  ch.  xviii.  So  also  the  visions  of  Judgment,  the 
Harvest,  14-16,  and  the  Vintage,  17-20,  are  anticipatory. 


NOTE  XI.]  the  Apocalypse.  523 

Chs.  XV,  xvi.  The  Seven  Vials,  the  actual  execution  of  Judg- 
ment. 

Ch.  XV.  The  Vision  of  the  Blessedness  of  the  Martyrs,  whose 
numher  being-  now  fulfilled  the  time  of  vengeance  was  come. 

Ch.  xvi.  The  Wrath  of  God  actually  poured  forth  upon  the 
land ;  the  Seven  Vials  answering  to  the  Seven  Trumpets,  each 
to  each.  Ver.  13  reveals  in  close  conjunction  the  rival  trinity 
of  evil,  the  Dragon,  the  Beast,  and  the  false  Prophet :  i.  e.  (i)  the 
unseen  animating  spirit  of  evil  in  the  background ;  (2)  his 
visible  manifestation,  and  instrument  and  embodiment;  and 
(3)  the  bad  moral  and  spiritual  influence  proceeding  from  them, 
and  seducing  men  to  the  worship  of  the  evil  one.  Verses  14-16 
are  proleptic,  and  anticipatory  of  xix,  17-19,  and  xx.  8,  9. 

Chs.  xvii,  xviii.  The  great  Judgment  upon  Jerusalem  described 
more  fully. 

Ch.  xvii.  The  Vision  of  Jerusalem  as  Apostate,  the  contrast 
to  the  Vision  of  the  faithful  Israel  as  the  Sun-clothed  IFoman  of 
ch.  xii.  She  sits  upon  the  scarlet  Beast,  i.  e.  is  upheld  by  the 
world-power  of  Imperial  Rome,  until  it  and  its  subordinate 
kings,  the  ten  horns,  turn  against  her,  to  fulfil  the  will  of  God 
and  make  her  desolate. 

Ch.  xviii.  The  Fall  of  Babylon,  in  vengeance  for  the  blood  of 
the  Saints.  Nothing  comparable  to  this  has  ever  happened  to 
any  city  save  the  Jerusalem  of  a.d.  67-70.  It  has  no  reference 
whatever  to  Pagan  Rome,  the  analogues  of  whose  fall  must 
be  sought  in  the  fulfilled  Old  Testament  prophecies  against 
Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  Egypt,  the  great  world-powers  of  old 
and  oppressors  of  God's  people.  It  has  a  proportional  analogical 
reference  to  the  Christian  Israel,  to  Christian  nations,  churches, 
cities,  whensoever,  and  so  far  as,  they,  or  any  of  them,  the  Seven 
Churches  of  Asia,  the  Churches  of  North  Africa  and  the  East, 
of  Constantinople,  of  Rome,  or  of  England,  reproduce  the  sins  and 
faithlessness  of  the  ancient  Israel. 

Ch.  xix.  Joy  in  heaven  over  the  Triumph  of  Christ,  "Who 
re-appears  as  the  conquering  rider  on  the  white  horse,  crowned 
not  now  with  a  wreath  or  garlaml,  oTi^avos,  vi.  2,  but  with 
mauy  diadems  (hahjixara  -noXKa)  xix.  12,  Kinf/  of  kings,  and  Lord 


524  The  Millennium,  or,  [app. 

of  Lords ^  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  heaven,  cp.  Joshua  v.  14. 
The  mention  of  the  Marriage  Supper  of  the  Lamb  (for  which 
compare  the  corresponding  portion  of  the  Olivet  Discourse, 
Ilait.  XXV.  1-13)  and  of  the  contrasted  Ar-mageddon  Supjier  of 
the  great  God,  and  the  accompanying  destruction  of  the  Beast 
and  the  false  Prophet,  are  Loth  proleptic,  the  former  anticipatory 
of  xxi.  J — xxii.  5,  the  latter  of  xx.  8-15. 

Ch.  XX.  The  Millennial  binding  of  Satan  in  the  Abyss.  On 
some  points  in  this  and  the  remaining  chapters  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, see  Notes  XII,  XV,  and  XVI,  of  this  Appendix. 

Note  XII.  §171'. 
The  Millennium,  or,  The  Period  of  the  Biiiding  of  Satan. 

After  his  successful  temptation  of  Man,  the  great  adversary ^ 
6  Saraz'tts,  the  old  serpent,  the  great  red  dragon  of  Rev.  xii.  3,  the 
Devil,  maintained  a  usurped  power  over  Man  and  man's  world. 
He  had  a  kingdom  {Matt.  xii.  26;  Marh  iii.  24;  Luhe  xi.  18; 
Mev.  xi.  15),  a  kingdom  of  darhiess  {Col.  i.  13);  and  was  the 
ruler  of  this  tvorld  {John  xii.  31),  claiming  a  power  and  right 
of  disposal  over  its  kingdoms  {Luke  iv.  7).  His  agents,  the 
dcemons,  were  the  world-rulers  of  this  darkness  {Llph.  vi.  12). 
His  power  exercised  through  them  as  his  angels  was  the 
delegated  poioer  {e^ova-Ca)  of  darkness  {Luke  xxii.  ^'3^ ;  Col.  i.  13). 
As  he  had  leguiled  Eve  through  his  snhtilfy  (2  Cor.  xi.  3),  so  he 
continued  to  deceive  mankind,  especially  ra  IQvt],  the  uncove- 
nanted  races,  the  Gentiles  {Rev.  xii.  9 ;  xx.  3,  8)  ;  lusting  after 
man's  worship,  through  pride  and  jealousy  of  God,  especially  of 
the  Eternal  Son ;  drawing  men's  offered  worship  aside  to  him- 
self and  his  agents  (1  Cor.  x.  20  ;  Rev.  ix.  20,  comp.  Lev.  xvii.  7; 
Beiit.  xxxii.  17  ;  Ps.  cvi.  '^']),  and  tempting  even  the  Incarnate 
Son  Himself  to  worship  him. 

The  Incarnation  broke  this  power  of  darhiess,  and  began  the 
desolation  of  its  kingdom.  Not,  perhaps,  the  Incarnation  as  a 
mere  fact  in  itself,  but  the  operation  of  the  Incarnate  One  as 
soon  as  He   began  to   act   in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 


NOTE  XII.]     The  Period  of  the  Binding  of  Satan.      525 

received  at  His  Baptism  {Luke  iv.  1).  There  is  no  sign  of  the 
disturhance  of  Satan's  power  until  after  Christ's  victory  in  the 
hand-to-hand  strug-g-le  of  the  Temptation.  After  that  He  Who, 
like  his  forerunner,  made  the  good  news  of  the  near  approach 
of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  the  first  great  subject  of  His  preaching, 
began  to  show  His  power  over  evil  in  His  miraculous  cures, 
especially  of  human  beings  possessed  with  daemons.  It  is  in 
connection  with  the  exercise  of  this  His  power  by  His  delegated 
agents  the  Seventy  that  He  makes  the  remarkable  statement 
[Luke  X.  18),  /  heheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven.  By 
that  time  some  mighty  change  had  taken  place  in  the  unseen 
spiritual  realm ;  the  power  of  evil  had  received  some  mighty 
check.  This  is  alluded  to  in  Rev.  xii.  7-10  as  the  ivar  in  heaven, 
which,  clearly  subsequent  to  the  Incarnation  and  the  Birth  of 
the  Man-Child,  resulted  in  the  casting  out  of  the  devil  and  his 
angels  from  heaven  to  earth.  The  effect  of  this  was  a  specially 
malicious  outburst  of  evil  on  earth  in  the  period  a.d.  30  to  70, 
the  devil's  short  time  of  great  %orath  [Rev.  xii.  12).  We  may 
thus  account  for  the  prevalence  of  demoniacal  possession,  and 
the  other  remarkable  evils  and  miseries  of  that  time  both  among 
Jews  and  Gentiles^,  and  for  the  great  Tribulation  (?;  0X1-^1%  rj 
\j.(ydKr],  Matt.  xxiv.  31,  29  ;  Mark  xiii.  19,  24;  Rev.  i.  9 ;  vii.  14) 
which  so  sorely  tried  the  Christians  until  the  Coming  of  Christ 
to  Judgment  in  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

Successive  blows  were  dealt  at  the  kingdom  of  evil  as  the 
Work  of  the  Incarnate  One  progressed.  A  strong  light  is 
thrown  upon  the  struggle  by  a  great  saying  of  our  Lord,  which 
is  organically  connected  with  the  Millennial  passage  in  the 
Apocalypse.  It  is  given  in  Matt.  xii.  22-45  ^'^^  its  parallels, 
Mark  iii.  22-27,  and  Luke  xi.  14.-26.  The  evil  one  had  been 
indeed  6  laxvpos,  the  mighty  one,  but  the  Mightier  One,  'O  'Icrx^- 
purepo^,  had  come  upon  him,  and,  in  a  preliminary  manner,  had 
hound  him  \  not,  as  yet,  so  as  to  prevent  his  doing  evil,  e.  g.  pos- 
sessing men,  but  so  as  signally  and  manifestly  to  undo  the  evil 
which  he  did,  for  the  greater  glory  of  God  and  of  His  Son. 
The  Millennial  Binding,  as  the  result  of  the  completed  work  of 
'  Compare  the  remarkable  language  of  Tacitus,  Histories  i.  chs.  2, 3. 


526  The  Millennium,  or,  [app. 

the  Risen,  Ascended,  Glorified,  and  Enthroned  Christ,  is  here 
foreshadowed. 

The  Saviour's  next  great  utterance,  hearing  on  the  forward 
movement  of  the  awful  drama  which  was  being  enacted  at  that 
critical  epoch,  is  that  recorded  in  John  xii.  28,  &c.,  as  following 
upon  the  third  utterance  of  the  Father's  Voice  from  heaven, 
J^ow  is  the  judgment  {yvv  Kpiais  [crisis)  eo-rt)  of  this  tvorld:  now 
shall  the  prince,  or  ruler,  of  this  world  he  cast  out  outside :  and  I 
{Kayd)),  if  I  he  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  to  myself  {jiphs  iixavTov, 
i.  e.  to  Myself),  i.  e.  as  the  one  true  King,  both  of  Jews  and 
Gentiles ;  for  He  was,  in  deep  inner  spiritual  reality,  to  reign 
gloriously /)*o»«  the  Tree,  even  in  the  moment  of  His  deepest 
apparent  humiliation.  But  when  these  words  were  spoken  the 
casting  out,  i.  e.  out  of  this  world  as  his  kingdom  and  sphere  of 
power,  was  yet  future,  eK/3Arj07/o-erat  e£a),  but  imminent.  The 
final  struggle,  we  cannot  doubt,  was  in  Gethsemane  and  on 
Calvarj' .  Then  was  their  hour,  and  the  poioer  of  darkness  [Luke 
xxii.  ^'^.  It  was  only  through  death  that  Jesus  finally  overcame 
him  that  had  the  poicer  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil,  and,  with  the 
exception  only  of  the  brief  permitted  loosing  at  the  close  of  the 
Millennial  Period,  broke  for  ever  his  power  over  man  in  life  and 
in  death,  and  over  man's  world.  Thenceforward  the  unclean 
spirit  was  exorcised.  He  was  gone  out  of  man.  The  house  was 
ready  for  the  good  Spirit  of  God  as  its  legitimate  possessor  and 
inhabitant ;  and  into  the  little  band  that  were  ready  to  receive 
It,  and  who  were  the  beginnings  of  His  Church,  Jesus  inbreathed 
It,  in  a  preliminary  way,  on  the  Easter  Night. 

But  the  first  open  declaration  of  the  victory  was  the  Gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost ;  and,  since  possession  by  Him 
depends  on  man's  good  will,  for  He  is  not  a  Spirit  of  violence, 
so  now  for  the  Jewish  Church  and  Nation  the  question  was. 
Would  they  welcome  into  their  empty  house  Him  Whom  Jesus 
as  King  had  shed  forth,  or  would  they  not?  They  answered  as 
Jesus  had  foreseen ;  and  with  the  result  that  He  foresaw,  their 
repossession,  in  sevenfold  greater  force,  by  the  evil  spirit,  so 
that  their  last  state  was  worse  than  the  first.  See  again  the 
whole  passage,  Matt.  xii.  22-45,  especially  the  close,  Even  so 


NOTE  XII.]     The  Period  of  the  Binding  of  Satan.      527 

slall  it  he  also  imio  this  wiched  generation.  Comp.  Acta  vii.  51 ; 
xiii.  40-52 ;  xxviii.  25.  From  among-  God's  ancient  People 
only  a  remnant  {Bom.  xi.  5),  an  election  (7),  a  first  fruit  (16, 
ep.  liev.  xiv.  4),  viz.  the  sealed  144,000  of  the  Apocalypse, 
welcomed  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  they,  after  having"  been  carefully 
guarded,  by  God's  wonderful  Providence,  through  the  great 
tribulation  until  after  the  decisive  visible  manifestation  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  visitation  of  the  apostate  Church, 
were  added  to  the  Gentile  ■nXi'ipaifj.a  which  God  called  to  fill  the 
gap  created  by  the'iYfall,  and  so  were  absorbed  into  the  Catholic 
Church  of  the  Tiwes  of  the  Gentiles. 

In  the  inner  spiritual  realm  that  decisive  visible  manifestation 
was  marked  by  the  Millennial  Binding  of  Satan,  which  is  to 
last  through  the  now  current  Dispensation  of  the  Times  of  the 
Gentiles;  for  by  the  thousand  years  we  are  to  understand  a  long 
but,  to  us,  wholly  indefinite  period.  The  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  the 
mj^tical  Bahylon^  was  the  token  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
had  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ  [Rev.  xi.  1 5), 
and  that  the  Lord  God  All-Sovereign  is  King  [Rev.  xix.  6).  During 
the  millennial  period  Christ's  faithful  ones,  His  martyrs  and 
saints,  who  have  been  raised  with  Him  in  the  First  Resurrection, 
the  resurrection  of  the  soul  to  grace,  now  reign  with  Him 
within  the  veil.  Nay,  inasmuch  as  in  idea,  but,  as  yet,  in  fact 
only  inchoately  and  imperfectly,  the  Church  is  already  Christ's 
kingdom  on  earth,  His  believing  people  who  have  the  first  fruits 
of  the  Spirit,  the  pledge  of  the  full  reality  of  the  great  hereafter, 
do,  even  in  this  life,  reign  with  Him,  being  made  to  sit  together 
with  Him  in  the  heavenly  places  [Eph.  ii.  6).  They  possess 
already,  though  not  as  yet  indefectibly,  the  franchise  and 
citizenship  of  the  Heavenly  City  [Rhil.  iii.  20),  being  the  children 
of  the  free  woman,  the  Jerusalem  which  is  (as  yet)  above,  which  is 
the  mother  of  us  all  [Gal.  iv.  26-31),  and  being,  in  the  Com- 
munion of  Saints,  ah'cady  one  in  Christ  with  those  within  the 
veil.  The  kingdom  of  the  Regeneration,  though  not  as  yet  fully 
manifested  on  earth,  is  already  begun  in  Heaven,  since  the  Son 
of  ]\Ian,  its  King,  took  His  seat  upon  the  throne  of  His  glory 
[Matt.  xix.  28),  on  His  Resurrection  and  Ascension.     Into  the 


528  The  Millennmm,  or,  [app. 

kingdom  of  the  regeneration  believers  are  admitted  by  Baptism, 
the  laver  of  Hegeneratlon  {Tit.  iii.  5),  which  engrafts  them  into 
membership  with  their  glorified  Head,  so  that,  in  their  measure 
and  proportion,  they  share,  in  and  with  Him,  its  blessings  now. 
This  was  impossible  before  the  Resurrection  of  Christ.  But 
then  He  overcame  death,  for  Himself  and  for  His  members. 
He  broke  down  the  barrier  between  the  merely  earthly  life  and 
the  eternal  spiritual  life,  and  '  opened  the  kingdom  of  Heaven 
to  all  believers.'  Thenceforward  believers  could  pass,  through 
Him,  from  death  unto  Ife  {John  v.  24),  from  the  merely  natural 
and  mortal  to  the  eternal  life ;  so  that  for  them,  abiding  in  Him, 
death  was  abolished  (1  Tim.  i.  10).  Hence  the  frequent  con- 
nection in  Holy  Scripture,  between  the  Resurrection  (of  course 
presupposing  the  Death)  of  Christ  and  our  Baptism  ;  between 
His  Resurrection,  as  the  Firsthorn  from  the  dead,  and  our 
Regeneration.  For  the  former — St.  Paul  (^Bom.  vi.  4-1 1)  speaks, 
as  of  a  past  fact  in  the  experience  of  Christians,  of  a  death  and 
burial  unto  sin  in  baptism,  and  a  rising  again  to  newness  of 
life,  wherein  we  are  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord; 
of  a  justification  from  sin  in  its  guilt,  and  a  deliverance  from 
its  dominion  and  power.  Again,  in  Col.  ii.  11-14,  he  speaks  of 
our  burial  with  Christ  in  Baptism,,  and  our  rising  again  with  Him 
through  the  faith  of  the  0])eration  of  God  Who  raised  Him  from  the 
dead,  accompanied  by  a  forgiveness  of  all  trespasses,  and  a  being 
quickened  into  a  new  life  together  with  Christ.  And  St.  Peter 
tells  us  (I.  iii.  31)  that  the  baptism  which  doth  noio  save  us  does 
so  bj/  the  Hesurrectlon  of  Jesus  Christ;  while — for  the  latter — he 
speaks  (I.  i.  3)  of  God's  having  begotten  us  again  {avayivvqcra's) 
unto  a  living  hope,  by  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  the 
Christian  '  state  of  salvation '  entered  into  by  Faith  and  the 
Sacrament  of  Holy  Baptism,  and  persevered  in  by  Faith  and  the 
Sacrament  of  Holy  Communion,  is  a  state  of  life  and  light,  a 
new  and  eternal  life  as  contrasted  with  the  old  natural  state  of 
darkness  and  of  death  in  trespasses  and  sins.  Christ  said  it 
should  be  so ;  His  Apostles  say  it  is  so.  Christ  said  it  should 
be  so;  To  Nicodemus,  John  iii.  3,  14,  15;  To  the  Samaritan 
woman,  iv.  14,  compare  vii.  38 ;  To  the  Jews,  v.  34-29.     This 


NOTE  XII.]    The  Period  of  the  Binding  of  Satan.        529 

last  is  a  specially  important  passage,  because  it  is  the  foundation 
of  the  idea  of  a  spiritual  resurrection  consequent  upon  faith  and 
acceptance  of  Christ,  and  explains  the  distinction  of  liev.  xx. 
4-6,  between  the  Jirst  resurrection,  that  is,  of  the  soul  to  the 
new  life  of  grace,  which  introduces  to  the  millennial  reign  with 
Christ,  first,  in  the  Communion  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and, 
secondly,  more  fully  in  Paradise,  and  so  to  the  ultimate  bodily 
resurrection,  the  redemption  of  our  hody  {Ttorn.  viii.  23),  which  is 
still  future.  To  these  same  Jews  again  (v.  40)  Christ  com- 
plained that  they  would  not  come  to  Him  that  they  might  have  life. 
To  the  Galilaeans  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum  (vi.)  He 
announced  Himself  as  the  Bread  of  God,  the  Bread  of  Life  yVihich, 
coming  doicn  from  Heaven,  ^qv\<\.  give  life  %into  the  world;  and, 
more  particularly,  that  the  Bread  lohich  He  would  give  loas  His 
Flesh,  for  the  life  of  the  world,  that  Whosoever  eaieth  His  Flesh 
and  drinheth  His  Blood  hath  eternal  Life,  as  a  present  possession, 
through  the  First  Resurrection,  and  should  have  its  crown  and 
completion  in  the  raising  of  the  body  in  the  Second  Resurrection 
in  the  last  day.  A  man  eating  of  that  Bread  should  not  die,  but 
live  for  ever.  These  were  indeed  words  of  eternal  life.  To 
Martha  professing  her  faith  in  the  distantly  future  bodily 
resurrection  of  the  dead  at  the  last  day.  He  said,  I  am  noio  ('Eyco 
ctfxi)  the  present  actual  Besurrection  and  the  Life.  He  that 
believeth  in  Me,  He  said,  though  he  had  died,  as  Lazarus  had, 
yet  shall  he  live,  and  tohosoever  being  alive  believetji  in  Me  shall 
never  die.  And  the  Risen  Lord,  meeting  His  Body  of  believing 
followers  for  the  first  time  on  the  Easter  Night,  breathed  at 
once  into  them  the  Spirit  of  Life  from  Himself,  even  as  at  the 
beginning  of  the  old,  the  natural,  Creation,  He  had  breathed  info 
the  nostrils  of  His  creature  man  the  breath  of  his  natural  life. 
So  the  Apostles  understood  His  words  and  acts;  and  so  they 
deemed  of  the  present  reality  and  blessedness  of  the  spiritual, 
the  eternal,  Life,  given,  in  Him,  to  His  members. 

The  Millennium  must  then  be  conceived  of  as  preceding  the 
final,  the  bodily,  resurrection ;  as  being,  in  fact,  now  current, 
contemporaneously  with  the  present  conditions  of  earthly  human 
life.     A  careful  comparative  study  of  the  passages  which  bear 

M  m 


530  The  close  of  the  Millennium.  [app. 

on  the  question  would  seem  to  dispose  entirely  of  those  ideas 
of  a  pre-millennial  personal  return  of  Christ,  or  of  a  post- 
resurrection  millennium,  whieh  were  the  foundation  of  that 
Judaizing-  and  fanatical  millenarian  belief,  or  '  Chiliasm/  which 
the  Church  has  rejected.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  the 
cardinal  passage,  Reiu  xx.  i-6,  on  the  reign  of  the  Saints  with 
Christ,  it  is  not  said  that  they  shall  during  the  period  there 
spoken  of  reign  with  Him  on  the  earth.  The  unauthorized 
importation,  from  v.  lo,  of  these  last  words,  understood  in  the 
literal,  bodily,  and  visible  sense,  has  been  the  cause  of  much 
confusion  and  mistake,  from  which  the  Seer's  significant  phrase, 
'I  saw  the  souls,''  &c.  (comp.  vi.  lo)  might  have  saved  the 
careful  reader.  The  passage  v.  lo  will,  of  course,  have  its  full 
and  literal  realization  hereafter  in  the  Consummated  Regenera- 
tion after  the  bodily  Resurrection,  when  the  New  Jerusalem,  the 
Heavenly  City.,  that  is,  the  Body  of  the  Covenanted  Faithful, 
shall  have  come  doioti  from  heaven  to  earth,  xxii.  5,  to  be  the 
capital  and  centre  of  Christ's  world-wide  Kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness and  peace,  wherein  the  will  of  God  shall  be  done  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  heaven. 

The  predicted  circumstances  also  of  the  close  of  the  Mil- 
lennium further  indicate  that  the  period  itself  precedes  the 
end  of  the  present  age  and  determines  before  it.  As  towards 
the  close  of  the  Jewish  Dispensation,  so  towards  the  close  of  the 
now  current  titnes  of  the  Gentiles,  Holy  Scripture  forecasts  that 
a  loss  of  faith,  probably  gradual,  among  once  Christian  nations 
will  bring  on,  as  its  result  and  climax,  the  falling  atvay,  or 
Apostasy  (?)  dTroo-rao-ta,  2  Thess.  ii.  3).  Then  the  house,  the 
fabric  of  Christian  society,  having  become  empty,  no  longer 
indwelt  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  no  longer  owning  as  its 
King  the  Mightier  One  (6  layvponpo'i),  though  swept  and  gar- 
nished with  the  highest  results  of  a  refined  material  civilization, 
is  repossessed  by  the  mighty  one,  6  i(r)^vp69,  the  imclean  spirit, 
who  returns  to  it,  bringing  with  him  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked 
than  himself,  so  that  the  last  state  of  de-Christianized  society 
becomes  worse  than  its  original  heathenism.  See  Lnke  xi.  14-12  ; 
and  note  that  whereas  St.  Matthew,  the  Hebrew  Evangelist, 


NOTE  XII.]  Bible  Ideals.  531 

preserves,  in  the  parallel  passage,  xii.  45,  the  words  of  Christ 
which  intimated  the  fulfilment  of  His  parabolic  saying-  within 
that  very  generation,  Hven  so  shall  it  he  also  unto  this  wicked  gene- 
ration, i.  e.  in  the  case  of  the  Jewish  Church,  St.  Luke,  writing 
for  Gentiles,  omits  them,  so  giving  the  saying  a  wider  appli- 
cation, and  indicating  its  possible  realization  in  the  case  of  the 
Gentile  Church  also.  This  repossession  by  the  evil  one  of  the 
once  Christian  Gentile  society  is  consequent  upon,  or  coincides 
with,  his  being  loosed  from  the  abyss.  He  refcovers,  for  a  time, 
his  power,  and  goes  forth  {Rev.  xx.  7-9)  to  use  it  in  the  old  way, 
viz.  to  deceive  the  nations,  especially  the  nations  tvhich  are  in  the 
four  corners  of  the  earth,  Gog  and  Magog  (Query,  The  outlying 
still  unchristianized  races  ?),  and  to  gather  them  together  for  a  final 
general  attack  on  the  still  existing  Christian  Church.  See 
Notes  XV  and  XVI  in  this  Appendix. 


Note  XIII.  §  176. 
Bible  Ideals. 

On  this  subject  I  venture  to  quote  a  somewhat  fuller  passage 
on  the  thought  contained  in  the  text,  from  a  sermon  preached 
by  the  present  writer  at  Oxford,  as  Select  Preacher,  in  February, 
1883:- 

"Holy  Scripture  presents  to  us  a  manifold  revelation,  or  un- 
veiling, of  things  and  persons  spiritual  and  unseen,  and  far 
above  the  reach  of  our  natural  faculties.  The  same  is  true,  in 
a  measure,  of  the  great  conceptions  of  physical  science;  espe- 
cially, for  example,  in  the  department  of  Astronomy.  But, 
while  these  are  intellectually  delightful,  and  even  absorbing — 
nay,  to  the  devout  student  (and  it  has  been  truly  said,  'The 
undevout  astronomer  is  mad')  a  real  help  to  faith,  a  felt 
stimulus  to  worship — the  ideal  conceptions  of  Inspiration  are 
all  this  and  more.  For  these,  coming  as  they  do  from  the 
Almighty  Creator  of  man,  appeal  to  man's  whole  nature,  to 
his  speculative  intellect,  to  his  moral  alfections  and  his  con- 
science, and  to  his  poetic  and  artistic  faculties;   and  their  in- 

urns 


532  Bible  Ideals.  [app. 

Huence  is  then  duly  and  normally,  and,  as  we  may  say,  ideally 
felt,  when  they  make  their  proper  impression  on  each  of  these 
elements  of  human  nature,  normally  susceptible  and  duly 
balanced. 

But,  ideal  as  they  are,  in  their  height  and  completeness  of 
perfection,  they  are  not  unreal — which  is  the  too  common 
En"-lish  conception  of  the  Ideal.  They  are  not  unreal,  in  either 
the  sense  of  being*  non-existent,  or  of  being  impossible  to  exist ; 
or  of  having  no  tendency  to  exist  among  those  to  whom  they 
are  proposed  as  Ideals ;  or  of  having  no  uplifting  force  on  the 
lives  and  characters  of  even  the  most  unpromising  of  their 
possible  and  conceivable  subjects. 

On  the  contrary — they  are  inherently  and  forcibly  practical ; 
because  of  their  exact  adaptation,  by  way  of  complement  and 
counteraction,  to  the  dull  and  lowering^  the  dark  and  depress- 
ing, the,  surely,  but  for  them,  despairing  conditions  and  cir- 
cumstances of  our  human  life,  as  it  is  known  to  all  but  the 
unenviable  few  whom  either  an  apathetic  callousness,  or  else 
a  childlike  acquiescence  in  the  sunshine  of  a  material  prosperity, 
dispenses  from  the  necessity  of  reflection,  and  lands  in  a  con- 
scious or  unconscious  agnosticism,  of  either  the  sunny  and 
cheerful  kind,  or  else  the  dull,  the  gray,  the  leaden  kind. 

Among  inspired  Ideals  are  the  following : — 

First,  the  great  Ideal  of  God,  the  Infinite,  the  Absolute, 
the  Uncreated,  the  Eternal ;  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
our  Maker,  our  Redeemer,  our  Sanctifier;  our  indwelling,  ever 
present  friend  ;  Whose  very  being  is  light  and  love,  answering 
unspeakably  to  all  that  man,  with  either  mind  or  heart,  can 
long  for, 

'Whose  very  greatness  is  a  rest 
To  weaklings  as  we  are.' 

Then,  the  Ideal  of  the  Spiritual,  the  Heavenly,  world ;  the 
world  of  the  Angels ;  created  spirits,  countless  in  number, 
excellent  in  power,  glorious  in  beauty,  not  mere  spirit,  as  God 
only  is,  but  clothed  and  defined  in  spiritual  or  heavenly  bodies, 
and  so  needing,  and  therefore  enjoying,  a  material  dwelling- 
place,  God's  vast  universe  of  unimaginable  beauty  and  grandeur. 


NOTE  XIII.]      The  Bible  Ideal  of  Worship.  533 

Next,  the  Ideal  of  Man,  a  liUle  lower  than  the  Angels,  yet 
crowned  with  glory  and  honour ;  the  lord  of  this  lower  world,, 
with  all  things  pnt  in  snhjectlon  under  his  feet,  the  child,  the 
son,  of  God,  created  for  full  communion  with  God  in  a  never- 
ending  moral,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  advancement. 

Tlien,  the  Ideal  of  Eternal  Life,  as  the  normal  and  destined 
condition  of  Angels  and  of  men  ;  a  life  whose  essence  is  the 
knowledge  and  the  love  of  God  as  revealed  in  and  through 
the  Eternal  Son,  the  Mediator,  the  Incarnate,  in  Whom,  for 
His  heritage  and  possession,  are  summed  up  and  united  for 
ever  all  things,  both  the  things  in  the  heavens  and  the  things  on 
earth  {Eph.  i.  \o). 

Then,  the  Ideal  of  Redemption,  as  the  inconceivable  revelation 
of  the  love  and  of  the  resources  of  God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  exercised  in  the  recovery  of  man  from  sin  and  death, 
and  his  exaltation  to  a  consummated  blessedness,  in  body  and 
soul,  of  which  the  glorified  Manhood  of  Christ  is  at  once  the 
Ideal,  the  pattern,  and  the  pledge. 

Other  inspired  Ideals,  more  or  less  particularly  involved  in 
these,  might  be  specified ;  such,  for  example,  as  the  moral  Ideal 
exhibited,  for  our  love,  our  reverence,  and  our  imitation,  in  the 
human  life  and  character  of  Jesus,  as  the  Perfect  Man. 

That  of  which  I  would  now  speak  more  particularly  is,  the 
Ideal  of  Worship,  as  set  before  us  in  the  Bible. 

It  is  an  Ideal  to  the  grasping  of  which  the  average  English 
mind  is,  not  without  reason,  thought  to  be  somewhat  unapt. 
For  any  moderately  worthy  acceptation  of  it  involves  a  strong 
and  realising  sense  of  the  unseen  ;  of  persons  '  unseen,  yet  ever 
near,'  of  purely  spiritual  relations,  purely  spiritual  agencies, 
purely  spiritual  results — results,  I  mean,  purely  spiritual  and 
private  in  their  first  impact  and  operation  upon  our  nature ; 
but,  surely,  when  they  are  real,  evidencing  their  reality  in 
results  and  effects  plain  and  traceable  enough  in  those  outward 
features  of  life  and  conduct  which  are  the  visible  fruits  of  cha- 
racter, known  and  read  of  all  men. 

Our  defective  imaginativeness  reduces  the  power  of  realising 
unseen  objects.     It  detracts  so  much  from  faith,  and,  proper- 


534     Symbolism  of  the  Tabernacle  and  Temple,    [app. 

tionately,  weakens  tlie  impulse  of  adoration,  in  respect  of  both 
its  imperious  over-awing  necessity  and  its  beneficial  effect  on 
the  worshipper. 

And,  besides  this  cause,  there  is  yet  another  which  is  very 
operative  in  the  way  of  favouring  an  inadequate  sense  of  either 
the  obligation,  the  blessedness,  or  the  real  nature  of  worship ; 
and  that  is,  the  failure  to  grasp  the  true  and  full  meaning 
of  the  Communion  of  Saints,  that  great  fact  of  fundamental 
Christian  belief  on  which  the  inspired  Ideal  of  Worship  really 
rests — I  mean,  the  fact  that,  to  us  Christians,  since  and  through 
the  work  of  Christ,  Heaven  and  Earth  are  one,  and  so  their 
worship  one. 

Let  us  look,  for  a  moment,  at  the  very  evident  symbolism 
of  the  Tabernacle  and  the  Temple.  There  was  the  outer  court 
for  the  general  congregation.  Here  the  sacrifice  was  actually 
offered.  But  it  was  in  the  Holy  Place,  within  the  first  veil, 
into  which  only  the  priests  might  enter,  that  it  was  presented, 
by  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood,  accompanied  by  the  offering 
of  the  Incense  on  the  golden  altar ;  while  into  the  Most  Holy 
Place,  within  the  second  veil,  the  high  priest  alone  entered, 
once  in  each  year,  with  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  great 
day  of  atonement.  This  inner  Holy  of  Plolies  was  symbolical 
of  Heaven,  the  place  of  the  immediate  presence  of  God.  But 
when  the  way  into  the  holiest  of  all  was  made  open  by  the 
blood  of  Christ,  the  veil  was  rent  in  twain  ;  the  barrier  between 
Heaven  and  the  earthly  Church  (symbolised  by  the  Holy  Place) 
was  done  away  in  Him ;  and  while  a  full  view  (as  one  may  so 
say)  was  now  afforded  to  faith  into  the  opened  Heaven  and 
of  the  mercy-seat  of  God,  whither  the  great  High  Priest 
entered  to  present  His  once-offered  sacrifice  of  Himself,  the 
general  condition  also  of  God's  whole  redeemed  people  was 
raised.  Admitted  as  a  royal  2mestJioocl  they  were  now  em- 
powered to  offer  lip  spiritual  sacrifices,  accepialile  to  God  ly  Jesus 
Christ,  in  that  true  Holy  Place,  the  Christian  Church,  now, 
through  the  opened  veil,  made  one  with  the  true  Holy  of  Holies, 
the  Heaven  beyond. 

Henceforward,  from  and  after  the  completion  of  the  work  of 


NOTE  XIII.]  Unity  of  Heaven  and  earth  in  Christ.     535 

Christ,  in  Ilis  Ascension  and  His  Gift  at  Pentecost,  Heaven 
and  earth,  spiritually,  i.e.  in  respect  of  spiritual  privilege,  are 
one.  Access  is  free ;  the  barrier  is  removed.  Christ,  ever 
spiritually  present  with  it  and  within  it,  binds  His  Church  on 
earth  to  Himself  in  Heaven,  the  Body  to  the  Head,  by  the 
link  of  an  indwelling"  supernatural  life,  which  is  the  indwelling 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  This  is  the  eternal  life 
of  which  Christ  speaks,  as  the  present  (though  not,  as  yet, 
the  indefeasible)  possession  of  His  people.  Hence  it  is  that 
Christ's  language  ignores  death  :  He  that  hearetli  My  word,  and 
helieveth  Him  tliat  sent  Me,  hath  eternal  life,  and  cometit  not  i?ito 
judgment,  hut  is  passed  from  death  unto  life.  He  is  ttiat  bread 
which  came  doivn  from  heaven,  of  which  tie  tluit  ealeth  shall  live 
for  ever.  If  a  man  keep  my  saying,  Christ  says,  he  shall  never 
see  death.  I  am  tlie  resurrection  and  the  life:  he  tliat  believetti 
on  Me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  lie  live  ;  and  whosoever  liveth 
and  helieveth  in  Me  shall  never  die. 

These  are  great  words,  most  glorious,  most  blessed :  so  great, 
so  blessed,  that  we  dare  not  even  venture  to  conceive  as  possible 
the  appropriation  of  them  to  ourselves,  did  we  not  remember 
whose  words  they  are,  Who  is  the  Very  Truth,  whose  repeated 
reproach  to  even  the  nearer  circle  of  His  own  disciples  was  for 
the  littleness  of  their  faith  ;  Who  seems  to  labour  to  make  us 
believe  that  it  is  our  Father  s  good pleasiire  to  give  us  the  kingdom. 
He  spake  not  such  words,  of  the  sublime  reality  and  complete- 
ness of  His  Redemption  of  us,  to  delude  or  to  mislead  us,  but  that 
we  might  dwell  on  them,  feed  on  them,  appropriate  them,  live 
on  them,  live  by  them,  die  by  them.  Do  not  let  us  minimise 
their  greatness.  Great  as  they  seem,  even  to  us,  tiny  are 
doubtless  yet  greater  than  they  seem  ;  and  they  arc  doubtless 
truer  than  they  seem  great.  For  we  cannot  measure  either 
their  greatness  or  their  truth.  We  think  at  once  too  much 
and  too  little,  both  of  life  and  of  death.  We  think  too  little, 
too  lowly,  of  what  death  may  mean  in  its  perfect  work;  for 
we  cannot  realise  the  depth  of  complete  and  final  separation 
from  God  ;  while  yet  we  think  too  much  of  it,  in  its  nearer, 
its  natural,  its  physical  side  towards  us ;  for  we  do  not,  in  our 


536  Bible  Ideals.  [app. 

littleness  of  faith,  realise  the  completeness  of  onr  redemption 
from  it.  So,  in  like  manner,  we  think  too  much,  too  highly, 
of  life  in  its  nearer  and  lower  and  more  familiar  aspects,  in 
our  fear  of  losing-  it ;  while  we  think  too  little,  too  lowly,  too 
feebly  of  what  it  may  be,  of  what  it  is,  in  its  hidden  fulness 
of  spiritual,  heavenly,  eternal,  reality,  in  and  from  God  through 
Christ  the  Incarnate  Son.  Our  inner  life  lies  in  this,  that  He 
is  one  with  us  beyond  all  thought,  through  His  real  communi- 
cation of  His  Body  and  Blood  to  us,  to  and  through  the  entire 
6\6k\t]pov  of  our  God-created  nature  in  body,  soul,  and  spirit, 
down  to  the  deepest  sub-conscious  bases  of  our  compound,  yet 
coherent,  life;  so  that  we  are  one  with  Him,  members  of  His 
BocJt/,  of  His  Flesh,  and  of  His  Bones,  one  with  Him  in  an  in- 
destructible life — indestructible  so  long  as  we  are  in  Him. 

St.  Paul,  in  his  eighth  chapter  to  the  Romans,  supplies  us 
with  a  good  example  of  what  I  have  called  '  inspired  Ideals ; ' 
of  that  high  characteristic  of  the  Bible  revelation,  of  which 
Cardinal  Newman  speaks  in  a  great  sermon  for  the  Epiphany, 
whereby  '  Holy  Scripture  oft-times  (he  says)  represents  things 
as  God  views  them,  and  as  they  are  in  His  providential  pur- 
pose, and  speaks  more  commonly  of  the  divine  design  .  .  .  than 
of  the  measure  of  fulfilment  which  it  receives  at  this  time  or 
that  ...  or  it  speaks  of  the  profession  of  the  Christian  ...  or 
of  the  tendency  of  the  divine  gift  in  a  long  period  of  time, 
and  of  its  ultimate  fruits.'  So  he  expresses  this  feature ;  and 
its  imderljnng  principle  and  explanation  he  indicates  in  the 
following  passage  : — '  Whereas  God  is  one,  and  His  will  one, 
and  His  purpose  one,  and  His  work  one,  whereas  all  He  is 
and  does  is  absolutely  perfect  and  complete,  independent  of 
time  and  place,  and  sovereign  over  Creation,  whether  inanimate 
or  moral,  yet  in  His  actual  dealings  with  this  world,  that  is, 
in  all  in  which  we  see  His  Providence,  in  that  man  is  im- 
perfect, and  has  a  will  of  his  own,  and  lives  in  time  and  is 
moved  by  circumstances,  God  seems  to  work  by  a  process,  by 
means  and  ends,  by  steps,  by  victories  hardly  gained,  and 
failures  repaired,  and  sacrifices  ventured.  Thus  it  is  only  when 
we  view  His   dispensations   at   a  distance,  as  the  Angels  do. 


NOTE  XIII.]  SL  Paiirs  language  about  Prcdesiinatio7i.  537 

that  we  see  their  harmony  and  their  unity ;  whereas  Scripture, 
anticipatino;'  the  end  from  the  beg-inningf,  places  at  their  very 
head  and  first  point  of  orig-ination  all  that  belongs  to  them 
respectively  in  their  fulness.' 

Accordino^ly  the  fulness  of  man's  salvation — of  which  we 
cannot  think  too  hig-hly,  seeing-  Who  it  was  that  wrought  it, 
how  He  wrought  it,  with  what  love,  and  at  what  cost  He 
wrought  it  (thus  giving  us  the  measure  of  the  value  He  set 
upon  our  nature,  which  Himself  created,  and  of  the  high 
destiny  for  which  He  created  it) — is  in  Holy  Scripture  set 
forth  in  the  fulness  of  God's  design,  which  cannot  really  fail^; 
set  forth  '  viewed  as  God's  work,'  which  is  ever  perfect ; 
viewed  as  God's  work  in  itself,  without  man's  co-operation ; 
a  picture  of  what  God's  work  always  and  essentially  tends  to 
be,  ought  to  be  now,  and  might  be  now,  if  Christians  had 
perfect,  absolute,  and  entire  faith;  and  what  it  will  be  abso- 
lutely hereafter,  in  the  final  state,  in  and  for  all  those  who 
shall  attain  that  world. 

In  this  way  the  language  about  predestination  is  accounted 
for,  Whom  He  did  foreknow.  He  also  did  predestinate ;  w/iom  He 
did  predestinate,  them  He  also  called;  whom  He  called,  them  He 
also  justified ;  whom  He  justified,  them  He  also  glorified.  It  is 
the  Divine  Ideal  of  man's  redemption,  viewed  from  God^s  side, 
viewed  as  it  is  His  purpose,  viewed  in  its  completeness. 

In  that  view  the  salvation  of  the  elect  is  an  accomplished 
fact.  And  the  gifts  and  calling  of  God  are  tvithont  repentance. 
He  does  not  recall  them.  But  their  operation  in  individual 
cases  depends  on  individual  free-will.  It  is  for  us  to  grasp, 
in  living  faith  and  hope,  and  to  grow  up  to  the  glory  of,  the 
high  calling  whereioith  tve  are  called,  the  grandeur  of  our  in- 
heritance in  Christ.  And  the  first  step  to  that  is,  to  believe 
that  His  words  of  what  He  has  done  for  us,  and  of  what  is, 
in  and  by  Him,  offered  even  to  such  as  we  are,  are  absolutely 
true.  Bi/  His  death  He  hath  destroyed  death.  He  has  abolished 
death,  and  has  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  through  the 
Gospel.  It  is  indeed  a  '  Gospel.'  0  Death,  where  is  thy  sting  ? 
0  Grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ? 


538  The  revealed  Worship  of  Heaven.  [app. 

So  in  the  ideal  view,  that  is,  the  only  worthy,  the  only 
adequate,  the  only  real,  and  Scriptural  view,  of  Christian 
Worship,  Heaven  and  Earth  are  one,  their  worship  one. 

A  worship  of  Heaven  there  is.  Isaiah  saw  it.  John  saw  it. 
And,  before  Isaiah,  Moses  saw,  alone  in  the  mount  with  God, 
a  heavenly  original  and  pattern,  revealed  to  him,  to  copy  in 
the  arrangements  and  the  ritual  of  the  Tabernacle,  which,  with 
its  priests,  was  to  serve  imto  the  example  and  shadow  of  heavenly 
things  {lleh.  viii.  5),  and  especially  of  the  mystery  of  propitiation 
and  atonement.  With  no  mention  of  that  feature — for  it  was 
the  wor.ship  of  the  sinless  seraphim  which  was  revealed  to  him 
■ — Isaiah  reports  the  words  of  their  Sanctus  Hymn,  Holy,  Holy, 
Holy,  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  The  whole  earth  is  full  of  His  Glory. 
Through  the  door  opened  in  Heaven,  St.  John  {Jiev.  iv.  1)  saw, 
as  Isaiah,  the  solemn  worship  offered  to  One  that  sat  on  the 
throne,  and  heard  again  the  Sanctus,  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord 
God  Almighty,  which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come.  But,  round 
about  the  throne  he  saw,  as  worshippers,  not  alone  the  six- 
winged  living  creatures,  but,  on  four  and  twenty  thrones,  the 
four  and  twenty  elders,  the  crowned  and  glorified  representatives 
of  the  Israel  of  God,  of  both  the  earlier  and  the  later  stage, 
now  united  and  made  one  new  man  in  Christ  {TLph.  ii,  14).  But 
here,  in  significant  addition  to  the  song  of  worshipful  praise 
for  the  glory  of  Creation — Thou  art  tvorthy,  0  Lord,  to  receive 
glory,  and  honour,  and  ptower :  for  Thoio  hast  created  all  things, 
and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are,  and  were  created, — there  follows 
the  thanksgiving  for  the  greater  wonders  of  redemption.  And 
this  is  especially  addressed  to  One  Who  is  revealed  under  the 
expressive  symbol  of  the  Lamb  as  it  had  heen  slain,  and  Who  is 
immediately  afterwards  identified,  as  an  equal  object  of  worship, 
with  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  Throne.  Naturally,  this  special 
thanksgiving  of  the  redeemed  belongs  to  the  Israel  of  God ; 
The  four  and  twenty  elders  fell  down  before  the  Latnb  .  .  .  and 
they  sung  a  new  song,  saying.  Thou  art  worthy  .  .  .  for  Thou  wast 
slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  Thy  blood  out  of  every 
kindred,  and  tongue,  and  peopjle,  and  nation.  But  this  again  is 
followed  by  a   hymn  from  an  outer  circle  of  the  myriads  of 


NOTE  XIII.]    The  Worship  of  the  New  Jerusalem.     539 

angels,  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  .  .  .  and  that  again 
by  the  voices  of  ever?/  creature,  in  heaven,  and  earth,  and  sea, 
saying,  Blessing,  and  honour,  and  glory,  and  power  tmto  Him  that 
sitteth  upon  the  Throne,  and  v.nio  the  Lamh  for  ever  and  ever. 

And  this  is  a  picture  of  the  actual  worship  of  this  present 
dispensation,  now  going  on,  in  the  unseen  state  within  the 
veil.  It  is  not  the  worship  of  the  consummated  state,  after 
the  resurrection,  in  the  new  heaven  and  earth,  after  the  return 
of  the  Bridegroom,  after  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb  in 
the  holy,  the  heavenly  city,  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  true 
'  vision  of  peace,'  then  planted  upon  the  regenerated  earth. 
For  its  brief  description  of  that  state  the  Apocalypse  waits 
until  its  closing  chapters,  after  the  present  millennial  reign. 
The  worship  which  St.  John  describes  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
chapters  must  be  conceived  of  as  the  worship,  now  going  on, 
of  the  Church  beyond  death,  of  the  new  Jerusalem  which  is 
the  mother  of  us  all,  the  City  zvhich  hath  the  foundations,  whose 
luilder  and  maker  is  God;  the  city  which,  in  old  days,  from 
Abraham  onwards,  God's  faithful  people  knew  of,  and  longed 
for,  and  sought  for,  declaring  plainly  that  they  were  strangers 
and  pilgrims  on  the  earth;  the  city  which,  in  due  time,  as 
God's  plan  providentially  unfolded  itself,  was  typically  fore- 
shadowed to  the  fiiith  of  the  devout  Israelite  by  the  glories  of 
the  earthly  Jerusalem  and  the  Hill  of  Zion,  from  David  and 
Solomon  onwards  ;  the  city  to  which,  and  to  no  earthly  Sinai 
or  Jerusalem,  we  Christians  are  come,  the  city  wherein  already 
our  citizenshi])  is  {Philij).  iii.  20),  though 

'By  Babylon's  sad  waters 
Mourning  exiles  now  are  we  ; ' 

the  Jerusalem  which  is  above,  and  is  free ;  the  Mount  Sion,  the 
city  of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  in  whose  ranks 
are  included  the  innnmerahle  company  of  the  angels,  as  well  as 
the  general  assembly  and  Church  of  the  Firstborn  of  the  new 
Covenant,  and  the  sjArits  of  the  just  of  the  older  Covenants, 
now  at  the  length, — after  patient  waiting,  God  having  pro- 
vided some  better  thing  for  us,  that  they  without  us  should  not 
be  made  perfect  {Ilcb.  xi.  40) — now  at  the  length  made  perfect. 


540     Christ  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant,    [app. 

throuf^h  the  work  of  Jesus,  the  Mediator  of  that  new  Covenant 
whereinto  they  are  now  united,  so  that  their  twelve  repre- 
sentatives are  enthroned  together  with  the  twelve  whom  Jesus 
chose,  and  to  whom  He  promised  that,  in  the  regeneration^ 
when  the  Son  of  Man  should  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,  as 
He  has  done  ever  since  His  ascension,  they  also  should  sit  on 
twelve  thrones  with  Him,  the  Princes,  and  the  Judges,  of  His 
Israel. 

Into  this  Regeneration,  into  this  new  Covenant,  into  this 
world  to  come — or  rather,  to  us,  now  come  (for  the  writer  to 
the  Hebrews  spoke  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  time  before 
that  judgment  of  the  old  Jerusalem,  which  was  the  formal  and 
manifest  inauguration  of  the  millennial  period,  the  times  of  the 
Gentiles) — into  this  redeemed  world,  now  truly,  though  not 
yet  fully  come,  we  were  admitted  at  our  Baptism,  when  first 
we  tasted  its  powers  {Heb.  vi.  5),  and  were  made  partakers  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  Who  is  its  inner  regenerating  and  renewing 
force.  Thus,  in  the  true  conception  of  that  great  article  of 
our  Creed  of  which  I  spoke  as  the  foundation  of  any  true  idea 
of  Christian  worship, 

'  The  saints  on  earth  and  those  above 
But  one  communion  make.'  " 


Note  XIV.  §  185. 

Christ  the  Minister  (AetToupyo's,  Heb.  viii.  2)  of  the  New  Covenant. 

Let  me  here  earnestly  commend  the  attention  of  my  readers 
to  the  valuable  and  interesting  exposition  by  my  venerated 
predecessor  in  the  parish  of  Barnes,  the  late  Canon  Melvill, 
of  Heb.  viii.  2.  A  minister  [Xeirovpyos)  of  the  sanctuary,  and  of 
the  true  tabernacle  which  the  LoJtD  pitched  and  not  man.  The 
sermon  is  entitled  '  Christ  the  Minister  of  the  Church,'  and  is  the 
second  in  the  volume  of  his  sermons  published  by  Riviiigtons 
in  1833,  and  also  in  Vol.  I  of  their  edition  of  1872.  Its  lan- 
guage is  remarkable,  alike  as  having  been  first  published  in 
the  very  year  of  the  first  issue  of  the  Tracts  for  the  Times,  and 


NOTE  XIV.]  The  Church  is  the  True  Tabernacle.        541 

as  coming"  from  the  quarter  of  Church  opinion  with  which 
Canon  Melvill  was  usually  more  particularly  identified.  0  si 
sic  omnes !  I  quote  some  of  the  leading  passages  by  way 
of  a  short  analysis  ;  but  the  whole  sermon  deserves  careful 
study. 

'  St.  Paul  had  in  view  those  portions  of  the  mediatorial  work 
which  are  yet  being-  executed,  and  not  those  which  were  completed 
upon  earth.  .  .  .  The  priesthood  now  enacted  in  heaven  was 
that  on  which  he  wished  to  centre  attention.  .  .  .  Christ  in 
heaven  and  not  Christ  on  earth  is  sketched  out.' 

Then,  as  to  the  meaning*  of  the  phrase  the  true  tabernacle,  &c. 
'  The  most  correct  and  simple  idea  appears  to  be,  that,  inasmuch 
as  Christ  is  the  hig-h  priest  of  all  who  believe  upon  His  name, 
and  inasmuch  as  believers  make  up  Ilis  Church,  the  whole 
company  of  the  faithful  constitute  that  tabernacle  of  which  He 
is  here  asserted  the  Minister.  If  we  adopt  this  interpretation, 
we  may  trace  a  fitness  and  accuracy  of  expression,  which  can 
scarcely  fail  to  assure  us  of  its  justice.  The  Jewish  tabernacle, 
unquestionably  typical  of  the  Christian  Church,  consisted  of  the 
outer  part  and  the  inner ;  the  one  open  to  the  ministi'ations  of 
inferior  priests,  the  other  to  those  of  the  high  priest  alone.  Thus 
the  Church,  always  one  body  whatever  the  dispersion  of  its 
members,  is  partly  upon  earth  where  Christ's  ambassadors 
officiate,  partly  in  heaven  where  Christ  Himself  is  present. 
St.  Paul,  referring  to  this  Church  as  a  household,  describes  Jesus 
Christ  as  Him  "  of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth 
is  named  [Ephes.  iii.  15);"  intimating  that  it  was  no  inter- 
ference with  the  unity  of  this  family,  that  some  of  its  members 
resided  above,  whilst  others  remained,  as  warriors  and  sufferers, 
below.  So  that,  in  considering  Christ's  Church  as  the  tabernacle 
with  its  holy  i)laee,  and  its  holy  of  holies — the  first  on  earth,  the 
second  in  heaven — we  adhere  most  rigidly  to  the  type,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  preserve  harmony  with  other  representations  of 
Scripture.' 

'  We  only  keep  up  the  imagery  of  Scripture  when  we  take  the 
Church  as  that  "true  tabernacle"  whereof  the  "Redeemer  is  the 
Minister."-' 


542        Christ  present  with  the  earthly  Church.      \h.vv. 

'  The  ''  true  tabernacle "  is  the  collective  Church  of  the 
redeemed,  whether  in  earth  or  heaven.' 

Proceeding"  then  to  speak  'in  the  first  place,  of  Christ  as 
Minister  of  the  Church  on  earth,'  he  says,  '  Now  it  is  of  first-rate 
importance  that  we  consider  Christ  as  withdrawn  only  from  the 
eye  of  sense,  and,  therefore,  present  as  truly  after  a  spiritual 
manner  with  His  Church,  as  when,  in  the  day  of  humiliation.  He 
moved  visibly  upon  earth.  The  lapse  of  time  brought  no  inter- 
ruption of  His  parting-  promise  to  the  Apostles,  "  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  [Matt,  xxviii.  20)." 
He  has  provided,  by  keeping  up  a  succession  of  men  who  derive 
authority,  in  unbroken  series,  from  the  first  teachers  of  the  faith, 
for  the  continued  preaching  of  His  word,  and  administration  of 
His  sacraments.  And  thus  He  hath  been  all  along  the  great 
minister  of  His  Church,  delegating,  indeed,  power  to  inferior 
ministers  who  ''have  the  treasure  in  earthen  vessels  "  (2  Cor.  iv.  7)  ; 
but  superintending  their  appointment  as  the  universal  bishop, 
and  evangelizing,  so  to  speak.  His  vast  diocese  through  their  in- 
strumentality. We  contend  that  you  have  no  true  idea  of  a 
Church,  unless  you  thus  recognize  in  its  ordinances,  not  merely 
the  institution  of  Christ,  but  His  actual  and  energizing  presence. 
You  have  no  right,  when  you  sit  down  in  the  sanctuary,  to  regard 
the  individual  who  addresses  you  as  a  mere  public  speaker, 
delivering  an  harangue  which  has  precisely  so  much  worth  as  it 
may  draw  from- its  logic  and  its  language.  He  is  an  ambassador 
from  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  and  derives  an  authority 
from  this  Head  which  is  quite  independent  of  his  own  worthiness. 
If  Christ  remain  always  the  minister  of  His  Church,  Christ  is  to 
be  looked  at  through  His  ministering  servant,  whoever  shall 
visibly  officiate.  And  though  there  be  a  great  deal  preached  in 
which  you  cannot  recognize  the  voice  of  the  Saviour ;  and  though 
the  sacraments  be  administered  by  hands  which  seem  impure 
enough  to  sully  their  sanctity ;  5^et  do  we  venture  to  assert  that 
no  man,  who  keeps  Christ  steadfastly  in  view  as  the  "  minister 
of  the  true  tabernacle,"  will  ever  fail  to  derive  profit  from  a 
sermon,  and  strength  from  a  communion.  The  grand  evil  is,  that 
men  ordinarily  lose  the  chief  minister  in  the  inferior^  and  deter- 


NOTE  XIV.]    His  Intercession  ^within  the  veil!  543 

mine  beforehand  tliat  tlicy  cannot  be  advantaged  unless  the 
inferior  be  modelled  exactly  to  their  own  pattern.  They  reg-ard 
the  speaker  simply  as  a  man,  and  not  at  all  as  a  messeng-er.  Yet 
the  ordained  preacher  is  a  messengei*,  a  messenger  from  the  God 
of  the  whole  earth.  His  mental  capacity  may  be  weak — that  is 
nothing.  His  speech  may  be  contemptible — that  is  nothing. 
His  knowledge  may  be  circumscribed — we  say  not,  that  is 
nothing;  but  we  say,  that  whatever  the  man's  qualifications,  he 
should  rest  upon  his  office.  And  we  hold  it  the  business  of  a 
congregation,  if  they  hope  to  find  profit  in  the  public  duties  of 
the  Sabbath,  to  cast  away  those  personal  considerations  which 
may  have  to  do  with  the  officiating  individual,  and  to  fix  stead- 
fastly their  thoughts  on  the  office  itself.' 

'  Christ,  though  removed  from  visible  ministration,  has  yet  so 
close  a  concernment  with  all  the  business  of  the  sanctuary — 
uttering  the  word,  sprinkling  the  water,  and  breaking  the  bread, 
to  all  the  members  of  His  mystical  body — that  He  must 
emphatically  be  styled  "  a  minister  of  holy  things,  of  the  true 
tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched  and  not  man."  ' 

Thus  far  of  Christ's  indirect  mediate  action  in  the  visible 
earthly  Church  through  His  commissioned  representatives. 
*But  whilst  the  office  of  minister  thus  includes  duties  whose 
scene  of  performance  is  the  holy  place,  there  are  others  which 
can  only  be  discharged  in  the  holy  of  holies.  These  appertain  to 
Christ  under  His  character  of  High  Priest,  no  inferior  minister 
being  privileged  to  enter  "  within  the  veil."  You  must,  we 
think,  be  familiar,  through  frequent  hearing,  with  the  offices  of 
Christ  as  our  intercessor.  You  know  that  though  He  suffered 
but  once,  in  the  last  ages  of  the  world,  yet,  ever  living  to  plead 
the  merits  of  His  sacrifice,  He  gives  perpetuity  to  the  oblation, 
and  applies  to  the  washing  away  of  sin  that  blood  which  is  as 
expiatory  as  in  its  first  warm  gushings.  In  no  respect  is  it 
more  sublimely  true  than  in  this,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  "  the  same 
yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever."  The  high  priests  of  Aaron's 
line  entered,  year  by  year,  into  the  holiest  of  all,  making  con- 
tinually a  new  atonement  "  for  themselves  and  for  the  errors  of 
the  people  "  {llch.  ix.  7) .     But  He  who  was  constituted  "  after 


544    His  acceptable  presentation  of  our  Worship,  [app. 

the  order  of  Melcliiscdee  "  king  as  well  as  priest,  entered  in  once, 
not  "  by  the  blood  of  goats  and  calves,  but  by  His  own  blood  " 
{Ileh.  ix.  12),  and  needed  never  to  return  and  ascend  again  the 
altar  of  sacrifice.  It  is  not  that  sin  can  now  be  taken  away  by 
anything  short  of  shedding  of  blood.  But  intercession  perpetuates 
crucifixion.  Christy  as  High  Priest  within  the  veil,  so  immor- 
talizes Calvary  that,  though  "  He  liveth  unto  God,"  He  dies  con- 
tinually unto  sin.  And  thus,  "  if  any  man  sin,  we  have,"  saith 
St.  Jolin,  "  an  advocate  with  the  Father"  '  (i  St.  John  ii.  i). 

'  Once  more.  We  may  regard  the  prayers  and  praises  of  real 
believers  as  incense  burnt  in  the  true  tabernacle,  and  rising 
in  fragrant  clouds  towards  heaven.  Yet  who  knows  not  that  this 
incense,  though  it  be  indeed  nothing  less  than  the  breathing  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  is  so  defiled  by  the  corrupt  channel  of  humanity 
through  which  it  passes,  that,  unless  purified  and  etherealized,  it 
can  never  be  accepted  of  God  ?  The  Holy  Ghost,  as  well  as 
Christ  Jesus,  is  said  to  make  intercession  for  us.  But  these  inter- 
cessions are  of  a  widely  different  character.  The  Spirit  pleads 
not  for  us  as  Christ  pleads,  holding  up  a  cross,  and  pointing  to 
wounds.  .  .  .  He  holds  in  His  hands  the  censer  of  His  own 
merits,  and,  gathering  into  it  the  prayers  and  praises  of  His 
Church,  renders  them  a  sweet  savour  acceptable  to  the  Father. 
Perfumed  with  the  odour  of  Christ's  proi^itiation,  the  incense 
mounts  ;  and  God,  in  His  condescension,  accepts  the  offering,  and 
breathes  benediction  in  return.' 

'  To  all  true  believers  Christ  Jesus  is  literally  the  Minister  of 
the  sanctuary,  preaching  through  the  preacher,  and  administering 
through  his  hands  the  Sacraments.  ...  As  the  High  Priest  of 
His  people,  Christ  offers  up  continual  sacrifice,  and  burns  sweet 
incense.  And  when  you  combine  these  particulars,  you  have 
virtually  before  you  the  Saviour  in  the  pulpit  of  the  sanctuary, 
the  Saviour  at  the  altar,  the  Saviour  with  the  censer ;  and  thus, 
seeing  that  He  oflEiciates  in  the  whole  business  of  the  divinely- 
pitched  tabernacle,  will  you  not  confess  Him  the  minister  of  that 
tabernacle  ? ' 

Passing  to  'ministerial  offices  discharged  by  Clirist  towards 
the  saints  in  glory,'  as  distinct  from  what  He  does  on  behalf  of 


NOTE  XIV.]  Antichrist.  545 

His  still  militant  Church,  he  restricts  Christ's  priestly  action  to 
{a)  atoning-  sacrifice  for  sin,  which  he  says  they  do  not  need, 
being-  '  beyond  the  power  of  sin,'  and  (li)  intercession,  in  the 
sense  of  presenting-  the  prayers  and  praises  of  His  Church,  which 
he  also  regards  as  needless  for  '  the  saints  in  glory,'  bccaufse  '  the 
music  of  their  praises  is  rolled  from  celestial  harps,  and  requires 
not  to  be  melodized.'  This  last  assertion  is  probably  erroneous. 
It  seems  to  be  more  true  that  the  worship  of  the  creature,  being 
necessarily  finite  and  defective,  needs,  even  in  the  case  of  the 
very  hig-hest  saints  and  angels,  to  be  presented  through  the  One 
Mediator,  See  Lect.  II,  §  40,  41,  43,  45.  But  Canon  Melvill 
dwells  exclusively,  though  with  great  eloquence,  on  our  Lord's 
ministrations  as  '  preacher  or  instructor '  in  the  unseen  Church, 
concluding  as  follows  : — '  Removed  as  is  the  Church  within  the 
veil  from  the  ken  of  our  observation,  ...  we  can  yet  be  con- 
fident that  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  there  goes  onward  a  grand 
work  of  instruction  ;  and  thus  ascertaining,  that,  as  a  preacher 
to  His  people,  Christ's  ofiice  is  not  limited  to  those  who  sojourn 
in  the  flesh,  we  can  understand  by  the  "  true  tabernacle  "  the 
Church  above  conjointly  with  the  Church  below,  and  yet  pro- 
nounce, unreservedly,  of  Jesus,  that  He  is  "  a  minister  of  the  true 
tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched,  and  not  man."  ' 


Note  XV.  §  192.  p.  386. 

Antichrist. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  general  subject  of  to.  t(T\aTa 
and,  as  part  of  it,  the  coming  of  the  Antichrist,  should  have 
formed  so  prominent  a  portion  of  the  earliest  recorded  apostolic 
preaching.  The  general  subject  is  present  in  the  thought  of 
St.  Peter's  sermon  in  Acts  iii.  It  was  part  of  that  great  thought 
of  the  coming  Kingdom  of  God,  which  was  dominant  in  the 
earliest  preaching  alike  of  the  Baptist,  of  the  Saviour,  and  of 
His  Apostles.  It  is  especially  prominent  in  the  earliest  writings 
of  the  New  Testament,  St.  Paul's  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians, 
written  to  a  Church  in  which  he  had  only  spent  three  weeks, 

N  u 


546  The  Bible  revelation  [a  pp. 

yet  alluding  to  the  ajwstasy,  and  to  the  coming  of  that  man  of 
sin,  the  son  of  perdition,  that  Wicked  one,  as  among  the  things 
which,  while  he  ivas  yet  ivith  them,  he  had  told  them  of,  i  Thess.  ii. 
Looking  back  to  the  Old  Testament  it  would  be  surprising  if 
David,  as  a  great  representative  of  the  Kingship  of  Christ,  had 
not  been  led  by  the  Spirit  to  speak  prophetically  of  its  great 
opponent ;  and  no  attentive  student  can  read  those  three  deep 
and  wonderful  Psalms,  ix,  x,  and  xi — Psalms  which  so  appro- 
priately follow  the  charter  of  the  ideal  greatness  of  the  Perfect 
Son  of  Man  in  Psalm  viii — without  perceiving  that  he  was  so 
led^  Doubtless  they  had  their  fitness  to  the  circumstances 
of  David's  life ;  but  they  point  onward  to  a  greater  than  David, 
to  greater  enemies  and  a  greater  conflict,  followed  by  a  greater 
triumph,  than  his.  The  history  of  the  age-long  struggle  between 
the  kingdoms  of  light  and  of  darkness  furnishes  its  types  and 
forecasts  of  the  great  enemy  in  such  personages  as  Cain,  Nimrod, 
Pharaoh,  Sennacherib,  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes,  to  be  followed  by  Nero  and  Simon  the  Son  of  the  Star. 
But  the  special  prophetic  revelation  of  him  is  to  be  looked  for, 
as  the  Church  has  ever  believed,  in  Daniel,  vii.  8,  and  20,  seqq. 
(See  Pnseys  Led.  on  Ban.,  p.  81,  &c.),  and  viii.  8  seqq.;  and 
xi.  '^6,  seqq.  {Pnsey,  p.  96).  In  the  Olivet  Prophecy  Christ 
speaks  of  the  rise  oi  false  Christs  and  false  prophets  ;  and  though 
there  is  a  distinction  between  the  essential  idea  of  avrixpiaTos, 
as  the  antagonist  of  Christ,  and  x/^euSo'xpto-ro?,  the  false  pretender 
to  his  character,  we  may  yet,  with  Archbishop  Trench  ^,  '  cer- 
tainly conclude  that  the  final  Antichrist  will  present  himself 
to  the  world  as,  in  a  sense,  its  Messiah  ;  not  indeed  as  the 
Messiah  of  prophecy,  the  Messiah  of  God,  but  still  as  the 
world's  Saviour :  as  one,  who,  if  men  will  follow  him,  will  make 
their  blessedness,  giving  to  them  the  full  enjoyment  of  a  present 
material  earth,  instead  of  a  distant  and  shadowy  heaven  ;  abolish- 
ino-  those  troublesome  distinctions,  now  the  fruitful  sources  of 

*  See  Isaac  Williams,  TIte  Psalms  interpreted  of  Christ.  We  may  indeed  include 
also  the  next  three  Psalms,  xii.,  xiii.,  xiv.,  appropriately  followed  by  Psalm  xv., 
the  pictured  character  of  the  accfpted  citizens  of  the  Holy  City. 

'■'  On  the  two  words  in  A''.  T.  Synonyms,  First  Scries. 


NOTE  XV.]         of  the  futtire  Antichrist.  547 

so  much  disquietude  and  pain ;  those,  namely,  between  the 
Church  and  the  world,  between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  between 
holiness  and  sin,  between  good  and  evil.  It  will  follow,  there- 
fore, that,  however  he  will  not  assume  the  name  of  Christ,  and 
so  will  not,  in  the  letter,  be  a  ^^vhoy^piaTos,  3'et,  usurping  to 
himself  Christ's  offices,  presenting  himself  to  the  world  as  the 
true  centre  of  its  hopes,  as  the  satisfier  of  its  needs  and  healer 
of  its  hurts,  he  will  in  fact  take  up  into  himself  all  names  and 
forms  of  blasphemy,  will  be  the  great  x/^evSo'xpioroj  and  olvtL- 
Xpca-Tos  at  once.' 

In  the  Apocalypse,  the  revelation,  in  ch.  xiii,  verses  i-io, 
which  obviously  directly  refer  to  Dan.  vii,  is  of  the  antichristian 
world-power  (then  pagan  Rome)  which  the  personal  Antichrist, 
foreshadowed  by  Nero,  the  antichrist  of  that  day,  will  wield : 
while  verses  11-17  speak  of  the  false  teaching,  philosophic  or 
religious  (so-called),  personified  in  the  false  prophet  of  Rev. 
xix.  20  and  xx.  10,  which,  as  his  forerunner,  will  prepare  the 
way  of  Antichrist  before  him.  The  same  kind  of  revelation  is 
indicated  in  our  Lord's  connected  reference  to  false  Christs  and 
false prop)Jtets,  It  appears  again  in  St.  John's  Epistles,  in  which, 
as  he  speaks  (I.  ii.  iH)  of  the  future  coming  of  Antichrist  as 
a  known  part  of  Christian  belief,  and  of  there  being,  even  then, 
many  (preliminary  and  typical)  ant'ichrisfs,  so  he  speaks  also 
(I.  iv.  1-3)  of  mani/  false  propthels  gone  out  into  the  icorld,  and  of 
a  spirit  of  antichrist^  iohereof  they  had  heard  that  it  should  come, 
which  was  even  now  already  in  the  world,  and  which  is  included 
in  St.  Paul's  expression,  2  Thess.  ii.  7,  the  mystery  of  latvlessness, 
which  doth  already  v:ork,  i.e.  in  antagonism  to  the  mystery  of 
godliness,  the  Divine  Incarnation,  i  Tim.  iii.  16. 

The  TO  Kariyjiv  [that  tohich  letteth,  or  holds  lack,  the  Antichrist 
from  being  revealed  in  his  own  time,  2  The^^s.  ii.  6),  personified  in 
the  next  verse  as  6  Karexcoy  a/vrt  [he  who  notv  letteth)  is  best 
understood,  with  the  ancients^,  as,  immediately,  i.e.  in  St.  Paul's 
day,  and  long  afterwards,  the  civil  power  of  Rome,  as  the  then 
embodiment  and  security  of  good  and  orderly  government 
(compare   St.  Paul's  language  in  Eom.  xiii.  1-7,  and  1  'Tim.  ii. 

'  E.g.  Tertullian,  De  Res.  Canm,  c.  24;  Liher  Apohffcticus,  c.  32,  and  39. 

K  D  2 


548  The  sph-it  of  '  lawlessness!  [a pp. 

1-3,  and  his  own  actual  appeal  to  Csesav);  and  then, 
secondarily,  secure  and  orderly  civil  government  generally. 
The  taking  out  of  the  way  of  old  imperial  Rome  was  quickly 
followed  by  the  appearance  of  the  Mahometan  antichrist.  It 
seems  that  what  is  to  be  expected  is  the  development^  of  which 
we  even  now  see  the  beginnings,  within  the  old  Christian  civi- 
lization, of  an  uncontrollable  and  anarchical  spirit  of  Unvlessness, 
which  shall  finally  overthrow  every  form  of  civil  government 
and  destroy  the  whole  existing  fabric  of  society.  It  will  be, 
on  a  practically  world-wide  and  international  scale,  the  supreme 
instance  of  that  democratic  decomposition  which  the  student  of 
history  and  of  politics  is  familiar  with  from  Plato  and  Aristotle 
onwards,  in  states  great  or  small,  in  the  later  stages  of  their 
histor}^  The  tendency  towards  it  has  not  been  as  rapid  in 
Christendom,  as  in  the  older  pagan  polities ;  partly  because 
of  their  larger  size  and  their  freer  scope  for  colonial  expansion  ; 
but  more  because  of  the  presence  within  them,  or  their  identifi- 
cation with,  the  Christian  Society,  which  is  the  salt  of  the  earth. 
But  when  the  salt  shall  have  lost  its  savour,  through  the  weaken- 
ing or  loss  of  faith,  and  through  the  divisions  of  Christendom, 
it  may  well  be  that  the  natural  downward  tendencies  of  merely 
human  organizations,  stimulated  and  inflamed  by  the  overgrowth 
of  population,  with  its  attendant  hopeless  misery  for  large  classes 
of  the  people,  may  result  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  ro 
KaTe^ov ;  which,  after  all,  when  unsupported  by  the  presence 
of  living  moral  and  religious  principle  in  its  subjects,  reposes, 
ultimately,  only  on  brute  force,  and  so  must  go  down  before 
stronger  brute  force  in  the  h:inds  of  irresistible  multitudes. 
Then,  still  on  the  lines  of  the  old  fjimiliar  process,  but  on 
a  grander  scale,  will  be  the  opening  for  6  Tvpavro'i,  the  world- 
wide popular  hero,  the  world's  messiah,  the  '  saviour  of  society,' 
who  shall  bring  in  the  secular  '  good  time  coming,'  in  which, 
having  at  length  got  rid  by  combined  effort,  under  his  leader- 
ship, of  the  incubus  of  a  supernatural  religion,  and  substituted 
for  it  the  '  religion  of  humanity,'  culminating  in  the  worship 
of  the  ])ersonal  Antichrist,  as  the  head  and  representative  of 
humauiiy,  and,  really,  through   him,  of  the  Evil  One  who   is 


NOTE  XV.]  The  '  loosing  of  Satan!  549 

behind  him,  the  'tribes  of  the  earth/  amid  much  promise  of 
unexampled  material  success  and  prosperity,  shall  ^•ive  them- 
selves up  to  a  wholly  secular  existence,  aai'ing  and  drhiklufj, 
VHirrijhicj  and  giving  in  marriage^  with  a  firm  persuasion  that  all 
things  are  to  continue  as  they  loere  from  the  tjeginning  of  the 
creation,  2  Pet,  iii.  4. 

Antecedently  to  this  the  Millennium  (see  above,  Note  XII. 
p.  524),  closes  with  the  loosing  of  Satan.  This  is  probably  a 
gradual  process,  coinciding  with,  and  possibly  dependent  and 
consequent  upon,  that  gradual  decay  of  faith  among  once  Chris- 
tian Nations  which  will  culminate  in  The  Jjjostasy,  which  is  a 
condition  precedent  of  the  Manifestation  of  the  Lnivless  One. 
This  Son  of  Perdition,  a  title  which  indicates  his  ultimate  destiny, 
will  be  the  visible  earthly  agent  of  the  Evil  One ;  indeed,  his  all 
but  incarnation,  but  that  incarnation  would  imply  a  creative  act, 
which  he  cannot  compass.  The  nearest  approach  possible  for 
him  is  his  complete  '  possession  '  of  one  who,  for  the  sake  of  the 
Devil's  bribe,  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them, 
shall  be  willing  to  comply  with  the  Devil's  condition,  All  this 
will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  doivn  and  worship  me,  as  a  pre- 
liminary to  his  own  receiving,  as  the  representative  of  the  Devil, 
the  worship  of  mankind,  as  the  Man-God,  the  deified  head  of 
humanity,  the  accursed  parody  of  the  Christ.  Archbishop 
Trench  writes  {Five  Cambridge  Sermons,  Macmillan  1857,  Serm. 
I.  p.  18)  '  '•  God  is  man,"  or  *'  Man  is  God" — we  must  choose 
between  these  two  sta,tements,  and  accept  the  tremendous  con- 
sequences of  our  choice.  A  time  in  the  development  of  the 
history  of  our  race  arrives,  when  these  are  the  only  alternatives 
for  every  man.  And  if  we  are  willing  to  believe  St.  Paul  and 
St.  John,  be  sure,  brethren,  that  the  question  in  the  end  will 
present  itself  to  every  man  in  a  very  palpable  form,  and  one 
from  which  there  shall  be  no  escape,  but  that  he  must  answer  it 
one  way  or  the  other.  "Will  he  accept  the  God-man,  Him  who 
was  God  fi'om  everlasting  before  He  was  made  man  ;  or  in  lieu 
of  Him,  a  man-god,  a  man  that  has  lifted  up  himself,  and  been 
lifted  up  by  the  consent  of  his  fellows,  to  this  blasphemous 
height  ?     Nor  is  it  Scripture  alone  which  declares  this :  he  must 


550  Archbishop  Trench  on  Antichrist.         [app. 

be  blind  indeed  to  the  moral  signs  of  the  times,  who  cannot  per- 
ceive this  mystery  of  iniquity,  the  last  and  the  crowning-  one, 
already  working  ;  this  world-wide  conspiracy,  the  same  of  which 
David  spake  in  the  second  Psalm,  spreading  through  an  apostate 
Christendom,  which  is  ripening  more  and  more  for  an  open 
revolt  from  its  Lord.  "  Man  is  God,"  this  is  the  new  Gospel, 
which  is  seeking  to  supplant  the  old,  or  "  God  is  man."  It 
needs  hardly  be  observed  that  this  new  gospel  is  indeed  atheism, 
and  that  veiled  under  thinnest  disguise.  For  "  Man  is  God," 
what  after  all  does  it  amount  to  but  this — "Man  is  man"?  for 
they  who  so  speak,  having  in  this  very  utterance  evidently 
renounced  a  belief  in  God,  in  a  Being,  that  is,  greater,  better, 
holier,  wiser  than  man,  have  no  right  to  retain  and  juggle  with 
a  name  which  belongs  to  another  and  a  higher  range  of  things 
than  any  which  they  would  acknowledge,  to  deck  themselves 
with  its  spoils,  and  by  aid  of  these  to  cover  and  conceal  their 
own  miserable  poverty ;  crouching,  like  some  barbarous  horde, 
beneath  the  ruins  of  temples  and  palaces  which  they  themselves 
have  destroyed.  But  leaving  this,  which  is  but  by  the  way,  the 
time  will  assuredly  arrive  when  every  man  will  have  to  choose 
for  the  one  or  the  other.  So  it  was  at  the  first  founding  of  the 
Church,  when  martyr  and  confessor  first  took  their  side,  braving 
all  and  enduring  all,  rather  than  that  they  would  give  to  any 
other  man  the  honour  and  the  worship  which  was  rightfully 
their  Lord's.  So  shall  it  be  once  more,  amid  fiercer  fires  and 
yet  sharper  trials,  when  the  Church  is  passing  through  the  final 
agony,  "  the  great  tribulation,"  which  shall  precede  its  entrance 
into  glory.  What  the  God-man  is,  in  meekness,  in  patience,  in 
love,  in  holiness,  this  the  history  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  abund- 
antly declares.  Nor  are  we  left  in  total  ignorance  of  what  the 
man-god  will  prove.  We  need  but  to  study  him  in  the  com- 
pletest  manifestation  which  he  has  yet  assumed,  I  mean,  of 
course,  in  the  deified  emperors  of  Rome,  a  Tiberius,  a  Nero, 
or  a  Domitian,  and  we  may  a  little  guess  the  moral  lineaments 
which  he  will  wear.  What  altogether  he  will  be,  it  is  reserved 
for  the  final  Antichrist,  in  his  yet  more  complete  opposition  to 
all  which  is  divine,  in  the  final  apotheosis  of  man,  to  declare; 


NOTE  XV.]     S/.  Hippolytus  on  Antichrist.  551 

when  he,  being'  indeed  incarnate  sin,  shall  "  as  God  sit  in  the 
temple  of  God,  showing-  himself  that  he  is  God,"  and  being 
accepted  and  worshipped  as  such  by  all  save  the  little  company 
(and  they  will  be  a  little  one  then),  who  shall  recognize  in  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  and  who  in  the 
strength  of  this  confession,  "  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God,"  shall  overcome  at  last  by  the  blocd  of  the  Lamb,  issuing 
triumphantly  from  those  fires  in  which  they  shall  have  been 
purified  and  made  white  and  tried.  To  this  decision,  to  this 
solemn  consummation,  the  world's  moral  history,  "  the  times  of 
the  Gentiles,"  are  travelling,  and  by  ever  faster  strides.' 

The  aim  of  the  unseen  agents  and  statesmen  of  the  dark  kingdom 
of  evil  has  ever  been  at  world-wide  empire,  the  concentration  of 
the  world-power  into  one  hand.  This  is,  very  evidently,  becom- 
ing more  and  more  possible,  and  probable.  It  seems  that  it  will 
be  realized,  for  a  brief  period,  in  the  person  of  the  Antichrist ; 
who  will  use  it  in  the  furious  endeavour  to  destroy  the  Faith 
and  the  Church  of  Christ  from  off  the  earth,  as  the  great 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  designs,  and  especially  of  the  world's 
worship  of  himself.  Among  early  Christian  writers,  Hippolytus 
Romanus  (a.  d.  200)  has  left  a  special  treatise  On  Antichrist 
which  recals  passages  in  Origen's  writings,  and,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected from  his  having  been  a  hearer  of  Irenaeus,  has  some  points 
in  common  with  the  latter's  treatise  Against  Heresies.  He 
describes  Antichrist,  whom  he  identifies  with  the  '  little  tiorn'  of 
Da7i.  vii.  8,  as  in  close  particulars  a  parody  of  Christ,  as  a  '  cir- 
cumcised Jew,'  'of  the  tribe  of  Dan,'  who  will  '  send  forth  false 
apostles,'  and  '  gather  together  the  scattered  people,'  and  who, 
'  as  the  Saviour  raised  up  and  showed  his  holy  flesh  as  a  temple, 
will  himself  raise  up  again  the  temple  of  Stone  in  Jerusalem,' 
and  'restore  again  the  kingdom  of  the  Jews';  that  he  will  be 
'a  tyrant  and  king,'  'ruling  over  the  whole  world,'  'a  terrible 
judge,'  '  a  son  of  the  devil,'  '  a  vessel  of  Satan,'  '  a  shameless 
fighter  against  God.'  Describing  (§  54)  his  'mode  of  action,'  he 
says  'He  will  summon  all  the  people  (i.  e.  of  tlie  Jews)  to  him- 
self from  every  country  of  the  dispersion,  claiming  them  as  his 
own  special  children,  promising  to  restore  (JmoKaTaaTi'iauv)  the 


552      \9/.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  on  Antichrist,      [app. 

country  and  to  raise  up  ag-ain  their  kingdom  and  people,  that  he 
may  be  worshipped  as  God  by  them  ;'  that  (§  ^^  he  will  also 
'  summon  to  himself  humanity  {jiiv  avOimTrorrjTa),  wishing  to 
claim  for  himself  what  does  not  belong  to  him,  promising  deliver- 
ance to  all,  though  unable  to  save  himself  ;  that  (§  ^6)  'having 
gathered  together  to  himself  the  people  which  everywhere  has 
become  unbelieving,  he  will,  at  their  invitation,  come  to  per- 
secute the  saints,  their  enemies  and  opponents,'  and  '  being 
puffed  up  by  the  Jews,  who  seek  at  his  hands  vengeance  against 
the  servants  of  God,  will  begin  to  send  out  against  the  saints 
edicts  for  the  destruction  everywhere  of  all  who  will  not  adore 
and  worship  him  as  God.'  Hence  the  '  great  tribulation '  and 
fierce  persecution  ;  which  will,  however,  last  only  a  short  time, 
being  cut  shoi't  by  the  Coming  of  Christ.  All  this  shall  befal 
(§  43)  in  the  last  seven  years,  the  last  '  week  of  years,'  of  this 
Age ;  the  Persecution  falling  in  the  last  half  week,  or  three  and 
a  half  years  ;  at  which  time  also  '  the  two  prophets,  Enoch  and 
Elias,'  whom  Hippolytus  identifies  with  the  Two  Witnesses  of 
the  Apocalypse,  will  reappear,  as  the  forerunners  of  the  Second 
Coming,  '  to  proclaim  the  imminent  Epiphany  of  Christ  from 
heaven,  and,  working  signs  and  wonders,  to  turn  men  to  repent- 
ance because  of  their  exceeding  lawlessness  and  ungodliness.^ 
The  XVth  Catechetical  Lecture  of  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem 
(a.  d.  350)  is  also  on  this  special  subject,  and  deserves  the  atten- 
tion of  the  student.  It  agrees,  for  the  most  part,  very  closely 
with  St.  Hippolytus'  Treatise,  which  in  all  probability  St.  Cyril 
had  seen ;  for  the  works  of  Hippolytus  were  very  widely  circulated 
in  the  East^.  On  the  passage  (§  15)  in  which  he  says  that '  Anti- 
christ, wishing  to  deceive  the  Jews  into  the  belief  that  he  is 
the  Christ,  will  show  a  zealous  anxiety  for  the  rebuilding  of  the 
Temple,'  i.e.  at  Jerusalem,  of  which  he  understands  3  Thess.  ii.  4, 
his  Benedictine  editor  Tutteus  notes  that  this  was  a  very  general 
opinion,  and  quotes  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Oral,  xlvii.  as  inter- 
preting the  abomination  of  desolation  standing  in  the  holy  place,  of 
'  Antichrist,  who  will  be  believed  by  the  Jews  to  be  Christ,  and 

'  See  Dr.  Salmon's  article,  '  Hippolytus  Romanud '  in  the  Diet,  of  Chrktian 
Biography. 


NOTE  XVI.]     The  Restoration  of  the  Jews.  553 

will  be  seated  in  the  rebuilt  Temple,  and  will  seem  to  be  Kinq-  of 
the  whole  world.'  It  seems  hardly  possible  to  resist  the  belief 
that  some  remarkable  movements  among*  the  Jews  may  be  con- 
nected with  the  close  of  the  Times  of  the  Gentiles^  until  the  fulfil- 
ment of  which  Jerusalem  is  to  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles, 
St.  Luke  xxi.  24.  Perhaps  the  world-diffused  race  may  do  for 
the  furtherance  of  the  aims  of  this  pretender  what  they  would  not 
do  for  the  religion  of  Jesus.  Ancient  Christians  based  their 
thought  that  this  will  be  so  on  -57.  John  v.  43,  If  another  shall 
come  hi  his  oivn  name,  him  ye  will  receive.  It  is  quite  conceiv- 
able that  in  future  schemes  of  world-wide  Empire  the  Jews  may 
play  a  large  part,  especially  in  the  financial  aspects  of  any  such 
movement.  They  have,  alas,  motives  enough  for  a  virulent  spirit 
of  revenge  towards  Christendom.  But  see  the  next  Note.  On 
the  general  subject  of  Antichrist  the  student  may  consult 
Dr.  Doellinger's  Appendix  I,  On  the  Histori/  of  the  Interpretation 
of  the  passage  about  the  Man  of  Sin,  in  his  First  Age  of  the  Chnrch, 
and  the  article  '  Antichrist '  in  J.  H.  Blunt's  Bictionari/  of 
Doctrinal  and  Historical  Theology. 


Note  XVI.  §  192.  p.  388. 

The  Restoration   of  the  Jews. 

The  whole  subject  of  Inspired  Prophecy  relating  to  the  des- 
tinies of  the  children  of  Abraham  needs,  ])erhaps,  a  careful  re- 
investigation. It  runs  through  the  whole  Bible  Revelation  from 
first  to  last;  and  a  just  view  of  it  may  be  necessary  to  a  just  view 
of  the  whole  with  which  it  is  so  intimately  bound  up.  It  can 
hardly  be  denied  that  the  general  tenour  of  Old  Testament  pro- 
phetic language  with  regard  to  God's  treatment  of  and  purposes 
towards  the  Jews  does  point  to  a  recovery  and  a  restoration  to 
His  favour,  and  to  their  own  country,  which  are  beyond  what  has 
already  happened  in  their  past  history,  whether  in  the  Return 
from  the  Captivity,  or  in  the  Maccabean  deliverance  from  the 
godless  tyranny  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  or  in  the  offer  to  them 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  admission  of  the  believing  remnant 


554  ^-^^  Bible  revelation  concer7iing  [app. 

into  the  Catholic  Church,  their  merging*  in  it,  the  true  Israel 
of  God :  i.e.  it  points  to  something  which  is  still  future,  it  is  not 
yet  exhaustively  fulfilled.  To  think  this  is  entirely  consistent 
with  the  fullest  ackuowledofment  of  a  most  g-lorious  and  blessed 
spiritual  fulfilment,  in  the  Christian  Church,  of  the  promises  to 
Abraham  and  to  David,  and  of  the  later  prophecies  to  and  con- 
cerning the  People  of  Israel. 

The  student  should  carefully  consider,  as  a  whole,  the  follow- 
ing passages  : — 

I.  The  Law.  The  germinal  parent  passage,  the  promise  to 
Abram,  Gen.  xii,  i-8,  compared  with  xxiii.  4,  Acts  vii.  3-5,  and 
Heb.  xi.  8,  etc. :  Gen.  xiii.  1 4,  etc.  :  The  Solemn  Covenant,  xv. 
7,  etc.,  especially  18  :  xvii.  8,  the  Sign  of  the  Covenant:  The 
Promise  to  Isaac,  xxvi.  2-5  :  To  Jacob,  xxviii.  13  :  Jacob's 
faith  in  the  Promise,  xlvii.  29  ;  xlviii.  4,  21  :  Joseph's  faith  in 
the  Promise,  1.  24. 

Exod.  Vii.  The  promise  of  the  immediate  and  primary  ful- 
filment. 

Lev.  xxvi.  The  enjoyment  of  the  land  depends  on  observance 
of  the  Covenant,  cp.  Deut.  v.  33  and  Deut.  viii.  and  Deut. 
passim:  Lev.  xxvi.  33,  The  Scattering;  41,  The  jDromise,  even 
then,  to  repentance. 

Num.  xiv.  The  people,  through  their  faithlessness,  cannot 
enter  the  land. 

Deut.  xxviii.  64,  The  Scattering  :  xxx.  The  promise  to  re- 
pentance. 

II.  The  Prophets.  Joel,  the  first  to  speak  of  The  Day  of  tite 
Lord,  forewarns  of  judgment  through  a  people  great  and  strong, 
yet  invites  to  repentance,  promises  restoration,  and  the  Gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  cp.  Acts  ii.  16,  etc.,  and  passes  on  to  the  Final 
End  in  the  Judgment  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  New  Jerusalem. 
His  prophecy  in  fact  is  a  germinal  epitome  of  the  whole  sweep 
of  inspired  prophecy,  later  prophecies,  even  to  the  Apocalypse 
inclusive,  being  but  the  expansion  of  its  topics. 

Amos,  Warnings  of  awful  judgment  against  Israel  and  Judah, 
[  yet  with  the  promise  of  Restoration,  ix.  11,  etc. 

Ho&ea,  i.  and  ii.,  God's  Church  guilty  of  whoredom ;  conse- 


NOTE  XVI.]         the  Future  of  the  Jews.  555 

quent  judgment,  }X't  promise  of  Restoration  ;  iii.  4-5,  Restora- 
tion :  so  also  vi.  1-3,  xi,  8-1 1,  and  xiv. 

Micah,  ii.  12,  13,  Salvation  of  a  Remnant  :  iv.  1-8,  The  final 
Consummated  State, in  the  New  Jerusalem;  (observe  the  identity 
of  iv.  1-3,  with  Isaiah  ii.  2-4)  :  vii.  20,  The  sureness  of  the 
promise,  a  verse  reproduced  in  the  Betiediclus,  Lu.  i.  70,  etc. 

Isaiah,  i.  24  :  ii.  2-4  :  iv.  2-6,  Restoration  of  the  Divine 
Presence  :  vi.  13,  Even  at  the  worst  a  stem  remains:  xi,  xii. 
(xi.  4  is  applied  by  St.  Paul,  2  Thess.  ii.  8,  to  the  destruction 
of  Antichrist) :  xiv.  1-3,  Return  from  Captivity,  not  necessarily 
exhaustively  fulfilled  in  any  past  returns :  xxv,  xxvi,  point  to 
the  Palingenesia,  xxv.  8,  9  and  xxvi.  19,  looking  on  to  the 
Resurrection  (as  Dan.  xii.  2,  3,  13)  as  a  necessary  part  of  it: 
XXX,  Judgment  followed  by  Restoration,  so  xxxi,  xxxii :  xxxii, 
The  out-pouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  cp.  xliv.  1-5  :  xxxiii. 
15-23,  Restoration  :  xxxiv,  The  Judgment  of  the  Anti-Christian 
world:  xxxv,  The  Palingenesia :  xl.  1-12,  The  great  Fore- 
runner of  the  Advent,  cp.  Mai.  iii.  iv,  fulfilled  primarily,  but 
not  exhaustively  in  St.  John  Baptist :  also  xlix.  14,  etc.;  Ii.  9 
to  Iii.  12  ;  liv,  Iv ;  Ixi-lxiv  ;  Ix.  17,  etc.  and  Ixvi. 

Zephaniah  si)eaks  of  judgment,  invasion,  the  conversion  of  the 
Gentiles,  the  salvation  of  a  remnant  of  Israel,  and  the  Restora- 
tion of  Zion  and  Jerusalem. 

Habakkuk,  ii.  2,  3,  comparing  Heb.  x.  33,  and  the  LXX  ; 
also  ii.  14  ;  and  Obadiah  15-21. 

In  Jeremiah  the  passages  to  be  noted  are  iii.  i2-i8  ;  xvii. 
25,  26,  compared  with  xxii.  4  ;  xxiii.  3-8  ;  xxiv.  4-7  ;  xxx, 
xxxi;  and  xxxiii.  14-22. 

In  Ezekiel  xi,  16-20,  compared  with  xxxvi.  24,  etc.;  xvi. 
60-63  ;  XX,  40-44  ;  xxxvii  ;  and  chs.  xl-xlviii. 

Daniel  speaks  much  of  the  final  time  of  trouble  (xii.  i,  cp,  xi. 
33)  under  Antichrist,  of  whom  Antiochus  Epiphanes  was  an 
eminent  type ;  hints,  xi.  45,  at  his  opposition  to  Christ,  cp. 
viii.  1 1  and  25,  his  suppression  of  Christian  worshiji  in  the 
(restored  and  Christian)  Sanctuary  at  Jerusalem,  viii.  11,  xi. 
31,  with  the  help  of  the  unbelieving  Jews,  xi.  31  ;  his  substitu- 
tion of  his  own  temple-palace  in  its  place,  xi.  45.  But  he  does 
not  dwell  on  any  pre-Advent  restoration  of  believing  Chi  istiau 
Jews, — though  his  language  about  the  Sanctuary,  and  the  daily 


556  6"/.  Pauts  language  in  Rom.  xi.  [app. 

sacrifice,  which  Antichrist  destroys,  implies  it — but  passes  on 
to  the  Resurrection,  in  which  he  is  promised  a  share. 

The  three  last  prophets,  the  prophets  of  the  Return  from 
Bab}lou,  speak,  no  doubt,  of  the  joys  and  blessings  of  that 
restoration,  and  point  onwards  to  the  Coming  of  Christ,  of 
which  it  was  a  type  and  a  pledge.  Yet  they  do  so  in  language 
which  blends  in  prophetic  fore-shortening  the  glories  of  the 
First  and  of  the  Second  Coming,  and  so  is  not  yet  exhausted. 
Observe  especially  Haggai  ii.  6-9  and  20-23,  on  which  see 
Dr.  Pusey's  commentary;  Zechariah,  ii.  10-13,  especially  re- 
garded as  spoken  by  the  Eternal  Son  ;  viii.  1-8  (comparing 
2  Sam.  vii.  11  and  Rev.  xxi.  7),  and  viii.  20-23  '■>  ^^^^  xii-xiv, 
where  see  Pusey  on  xii.  i,  xiv.  2,  4,  5,  etc. ;  and  Malachi  iii. 
and  iv,  where  see  Pusey  on  iii.  i,  2,  on  the  '  blending  of  the  first 
and  second  coming  of  our  Lord;'  and  on  iv.  5,  on  the  return 
of  Elijah. 

The  language  of  St.  Paul  in  Romans  xi.  seems  absolutely  to 
forbid  the  thought  that  these  prophecies  have  already,  and, 
indeed,  long  since,  been  exhaustively  fulfilled.  Eighteen  cen- 
turies of  subsequent  history,  exhibiting  the  Jewish  Race  shut  uj) 
indeed  together  in  unbelief,  yet  still  guarded  throughout  in  their 
marvellous  national  and  religious  distinctness,  only  make  the 
Apostle's  inspired  language  to  be  now  even  more  remarkable 
than  when  it  was  uttered.  He  speaks  of  some  future  recovery 
which  shall  be,  as  it  were,  life  from  the  dead.  How  are  we  to 
understand  this  expression  ?  One  speaks  with  hesitation.  On 
these  subjects  thought  moves'  among  mystei'ies  which  the  future 
course  of  events  alone  can  fully  unravel.  Any  suggestions  must 
be  tendered  with  the  humblest  submission  to  the  corrective 
thought  of  other  believing  students  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  to 
the  ultimate  judgment  of  the  collective  Christian  Body.  Yet 
God  wills  that  the  intimations  which  He  has  vouchsafed  to  His 
Church  in  the  sure  word  of  ])rophecij  should  be  cjiven  heed  to,  as 
unto  a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place  ;  and  the  more  so,  as  the  end 
draws  nearer  and  the  times  grow  darker.  For  us,  and  for  those 
that  come  after  us,  to  do  so  is  a  duty  exactly  analogous  to 
that  of  the  first  generation  of  (especially  Jewish)  believers,  with 


NOTE  XVI.]    The  Final  Combination  against  Christ.    557 

reg-avd  to  the  enig-matic  hints  of  the  Olivet  Prophecy  ;  the  duty 
of  watching  the  signs  of  the  times  in  a  spirit  of  faith  in  His  sure 
deliverance  at  the  moment  of  sorest  need,  a  faith  which  in  tlieir 
case  was  fully  justified  by  the  event.  Looking  then  in  this  spirit 
at  St.  Paul's  language,  may  it  mean  that,  in  the  predicted,  and 
now  visibly  incipient  decay  of  faith  among  Gentile  Churches,  a 
movement  towards  faith  in  Christ  on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  or 
some  considerable  proportion  of  them,  may  revive  Christianity 
in  the  world  ;  and  that,  coincidently  with  the  return  of  the  Jews 
in  large  numbers,  whether  with  Christward  tendencies  or  other- 
wise, to  their  own  land,  Jerusalem,  when  the  times  of  the  Gentiles 
shall  have  heen  fulfilled,  may  become  once  more,  through  the  faith 
of  Christian  Jews,  the  centre  of  Christian  life  in  the  world  ?  If 
so,  it  would  naturally  be  the  great  object  of  attack  for  the 
mighty  unbelieving  world-power,  then  combining  the  forces  of 
the  de-christianised  Gentile  nations  with  the  races,  the  Gog 
and  Magog  of  prophecy,  which  have  always  resisted  Christian 
influences,  and  with  the  still  unbelieving  Jews  who  seek  a  false,  a 
merely  earthly  Messiah,  and  find  him — in  Antichrist.  To  this 
Bev.  XX.  9  seems  to  point,  speaking  of  a  time,  evidently  the  very 
climax  of  the  last  time,  when,  after  the  close  of  the  millennial 
times  of  the  Gentiles,  after  the  loosing  of  Satan,  the  camp  (irapefx- 
/SoAij)  (f  the  Saitits  and  the  beloved  citij,  are  threatened  by  alien 
hosts,  and  the  typical  period  of  Ilezekiah,  face  to  face  with  the 
insolence  of  Rabshakeh  and  the  might  of  Sennacherib,  is  repro- 
duced, on  a  grander  scale ;  but  with  like  result,  in  the  end  ; 
though,  apparently,  not  without  the  temporary  capture  of  the 
Christianized  Jerusalem,  the  profanation  of  its  restored  (Christian) 
Temple  by  the  aljomination  of  desolation,  and  its  conversion  into  the 
Temple- Palace  of  the  temporarily  successful  Antichrist,  who, 
seated  there,  will  claim  the  worship  of  mankind.  Compare  Daniel 
viii.  II,  xi.  31,  etc.,  and  45  (on  which  last  see  Speakers  Com- 
mentan/)  and  2  Thess.  ii.  To  some  such  events  the  Apostles 
evidently  looked  forward,  with  a  faith  which,  we  cannot  doubt, 
was  grounded  on  the  prophecies  of  old,  as  those  prophecies  were 
interpreted  to  them,  First,  by  the  general  view  of  the  Old 
Testament  imparted  to  the  Church  by  the  Lord  Himself  after 


558  The  Re-appearance  of  Elijah.  [a pp. 

His  Resurrection,  and,  Secondly,  by  their  own  inner  spiritual 
illumination,  the  mind  of  Christ,  which  they  had,  1  Cor.  ii.  15, 
the  unction  from  the  Holy  One,  i  John  ii.  20. 

Should  we  be  right  in  connecting'  with  these  events  the 
prophetic  intimation,  which  so  significantly  closes  the  Volume 
of  the  Old  Testament  [Mai.  iv.),  of  the  re-appearance  of  the 
Prophet  Elijah  ?  It  would  seem  so.  If  the  Apostles  and  disciples 
in  general  were  aware  of  the  disclosure  made  by  the  angel  Gabriel 
to  Zacharias  in  the  Temple  that  his  child  should  go  hefore  the 
Lord  their  God  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elijah  ;  or  of  the  Lord's 
saying.  81.  Mat.  xi.  14,  to  the  multitudes  concerning  John, — If  ye 
will  receive  (ei  deXere  be^aadai)  it  (or,  him),  this  is  Elijah  which  is 
to  come:  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear, — still  they  did  not 
take  in  its  real  meaning,  nor  discern  its  fulfilment.  Accordingly, 
after  the  appearance  of  Elijah  at  the  Transfiguration,  they  very 
naturally  reminded  the  Lord  of  the  prophecy,  and  of  the  teaching 
of  the  Scribes  founded  upon  it.  His  answer  is  remarkable. 
While  He  said  indeed  that  Elijah  was  already  come, — meaning, 
as  they  were  then  led  to  perceive,  the  Baptist,  i.e.  in  the  spirii 
and  power  of  Elijah, — He  yet  said  that  Elijah  indeed  cometh  first, 
and  shall  restore  all  things,  aTTOKaTa(TTi](Tet  iravra.  Compare  St. 
Peter's  language  as  to  the  dTTo/caTdcrracrt?  iravToov,  in  Acts  iii.  21, 
the  only  other  passage  in  which  this  phrase  occurs,  and  then  with 
a  distinctly  future  reference.  Christ's  words  leave  room  for,  if 
indeed  they  do  not  directly  assert,  a  further  coming  of  Elijah, 
which  is  still  future.  He  had  come,  and  he  had  not  come.  See 
the  Baptist's  own  answer,  Joh7i  i.  21.  In  spirit  and  power  he  had 
come,  through  and  in  the  Baptist.  In  literal,  personal,  visible, 
bodily  presence  he  had  not  yet  come ;  but  will  come,  in  the  End. 
Are  we  permitted  in  respect  of  this,  and  of  some  parallel  cases  in 
Holy  Scripture,  to  conjecture  something  like  this.  That,  had  it 
been  possible  for  the  faith  of  man  to  have  risen  fully  to  the 
thought  that,  in  spirit  and  power,  in  idea.  Saint  John  Baptist, 
than  whom  among  those  horn  of  women  there  had  not  arisen  a  greater, 
was  Elijah  ;  and  so  to  have  accepted  him  as  such,  obeyed  his 
teaching,  and  so  been  led  to  embrace  Jesus  with  heart-surrender- 
ing loyalty  as  the  Christ,  The  Son  of  God,  The  King  of  Israel ; 


NOTE  XVI.]   Literal  fulfilments  for  the  iinspiritiial.   559 

tben  no  more  had  been  needed  ;  the  prophecy  had  been,  not 
partially  and  imperfectly,  but  sufficiently,  fulfilled,  and  so  ex- 
hausted ;  the  Gospel  of  the  Khigdom  had  been  fully  accepted, 
first,  by  a  loyal  Israel,  then  by  the  g-eneral  world ;  the  Kingdom 
of  God  had  fully  come,  in  the  Regeneration  of  the  world  ?  Jf  yc 
will  to  receive  it  (or,  kim),  this  is  {avros  iarw)  Elijah  tohich  is  to 
come.  The  idea  is  real  to  those  who,  morally  and  spiritually,  are 
able  to  receive  it.  And  the  initial  requisite  is  amoral  willingness, 
€1  64X€T€,  such  as  was  in  those  few  devout  souls  of  that  generation 
who  really  waited  for  the  consolation  of  Israel,  whose  er/es  there- 
fore saw  God's  salvation,  and  who  thankfully  knew  that  they 
saw  it.  Full  childlike  faith  realizes  all,  even  now,  and  lives  in 
Heaven  now  ;  for  to  it  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  Catholic  Church, 
is  already  in  the  midst  of  than,  and  they  in  the  midst  of  it.  The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  within  than ;  though  it  has  not  come  with 
observation  to  the  general  world.  The  pure  iti  heart  see  God.  But 
they,  that  generation  of  Israel  as  a  whole,  did  not  will  to  receive 
the  stern  preacher  of  repentance  and  holiness  ;  and  so  to  them  he 
was  not  Elijah  which  was  to  come.  So  there  must  be  for  them, 
and  for  their  unbelieving  descendants,  a  literal  bodily  personal 
return  of  the  actual  visible  Elijah  ;  as  also,  after  it,  of  the  Son  of 
God,  when  every  eye,  in  the  most  absolutely  literal  sense,  shall  see 
Him,  and  they  also  which  pierced  Him.  A  spiritual  fulfilment 
sufl[ices  for  the  spiritually-minded  ;  for  the  rest  there  must  be 
a  bodily  fulfilment.  So  when  the  Lord  comes  in  visible  glory, 
it  will  not  be  to  or  for  the  spiritual,  who,  by  faith  and  sacraments, 
shall  have  been,  and  shall  be.  His  very  own,  members  of  His  Body, 
of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones.  For  all  such,  if  already  departed, 
shall  be  brought  7oith  Him;  and  if  still  alive  and  remaining  on  earth, 
shall  be  caught  up  to  meet  Him  in  the  air,  and,  changed,  in  a  moment, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  into  Resurrection  glory,  shall  also  come 
with  Ilim,  and  with  Him  shall  sit  on  His  Throne,  oxiA.  judge  the 
world,  when  He  shall  come  to  be  glorijied  in  His  saints,  and  to  he 
man'elled  at  in  all  them  that  believe,  in  that  day,  3  Thess.  ii.  10  ;  cp. 
St.  Judc,  14,  15.  Even  now,  of  course,  God  and  Christ  and  the 
spiritual  world  are  really  as  near  as  they  will  be  when  Christ 
shall  come  again.     Believers  realise  this.    The  visible  appear- 


560        The  Fathers  on  the  Return  of  Elijah,     [app. 

ance,  within  the  conditions  of  this  present  age,  and  to  the  bodily 
eye  of  those  still  in  the  flesh,  is,  perhaps,  needed  only  for  those 
— the  last  and  worst  generation  of  unbelievers — who  cannot 
otherwise  be  made  to  acknowledge  Him  to  Whom  evcrij  knee 
must  bote,  and  Whom  everi/  tongue  must  confess.  And  to  such  His 
manifestation  of  Himself  must  be  as  a  consuming  fire.  From  this 
His  previous  manifestation  of  Himself  to  His  own  redeemed, 
within  the  veil,  whether  at  the  last  for  the  purposes  of  their 
return  to  earth  with  Him,  or  at  any  intervening  time,  is  a 
distinct  thing,  alike  in  nature  and  in  time. 

Certainly  the  Fathers  speak  of  a  visible  re-appcarance  of 
Elijah  in  his  own  person  as  to  be  expected  before  the  future 
visible  Advent  of  the  Lord.  Dr.  Pusey,  in  a  Note  to  his  two 
Bristol  Sermons  of  1850  on  '  The  Danger  of  Riches,'  remarking 
first,  of  our  Lord's  saying  Elijah  shall  first  come,  and  shall 
restore  all  things,  that '  When  He  so  spake,  John  was  beheaded,' 
pi'occcds  to  say, '  Hence  Justin  Martyr  speaks  positively  :  "  Our 
Lord  hatli  in  His  teaching  delivered  this  very  thing,  saying  that 
Elias  shall  come  ;  and  ive  [Christians  as  opposed  to  Jews]  know 
that  this  shall  be,  when  our  Loi-d  Jesus  Christ  is  about  to  come 
in  glory  from  heaven."  Dial.  c.  Tryph.  §  49.'  Dr.  Pusey  refers 
also  to  two  places  in  Tertullian,  De  Res.  Carnis,  22,  and  De 
Anima,  35  ;  to  St.  Jerome  on  Mat.  xi.  14  (Migne's  ed.  vol.  viii. 
p.  72),  a  passage  apparently  referring  to  the  last-mentioned 
place  of  Tertullian  ;  to  St.  Greg.  Nyss.  Testim.  adv.  Jud.  t.  ii. 
p.  120  ;  Auct.  de  Prom,  et  Praed.  Dei,  c.  15  ;  to  Theodoret  and 
St.  Cyril  Alex,  on  Malachi ;  Andreas  Csesar  on  Rev. ;  and  to 
St.  Greg.  Mor.  XIV.  23,  on  Job  xviii.  20  (Migue,  i.  1053); 
Mor.  XX.  34,  on  Job  xxx.  23  (Migne,  ii.  178)  ;  and  Homil.  VII. 
in  JEvangelia,  §  i,  on  John  i.  19-28  (Migne,  ii.  iioo) — as  all 
'  speaking  positively  '  of  a  future  personal  bodily  re-appearance 
of  the  great  Prophet  Elijah  as  the  foreruuner  of  the  Second 
Advent.  The  first  two  of  the  three  places  in  St.  Greg,  are 
remarkable,  for  in  both  he  distinctly  expresses  the  idea  that 
Elijah,  since  he  did  not  die,  is  still  in  the  flesh,  in  which  he  will 
return,  to  die  under  the  persecution  of  Antichrist,  '  Etsi  ad 
coelum  raptus  Elias  esse  perhibetur,  mortem  tamen  distulit, 
non  evasit ....  Veiiiet  restiturus  omnia,  quia  ad  hoc  nimirum 


NOTE  XVI.]     Some  join  Enoch  with  Elijah.  561 

huic  mundo  restitultur  ut  et  praedicatiouis  muuora  impleat, 
et  carnis  debitum  sol  vat  ;'  and  in  the  first— like  TertuUian,  de 
Anima,  50,  St.  Hil,  in  Matt.  xvii.  and  St.  Ambrose,  in  Psal. 
xlv — he  couples  Enoch  with  Elijah,  saying  of  both, '  ad  medium 
revocabuntur,  et  crudclitatis  ejus  [Antichristi]  saevitiam  in  sua 
adhuc  mortal!  came  passuri  sunt.'  This  would  seem  hard  to 
reconcile  with  what  is  said  about  Enoch  in  Ileh.  xi.  5,  and 
with  the  appearance  of  Elijah  together  with  Moses  in  jlory 
{Luke  ix.  30)  at  the  Transfiguration.  St.  Hippolytus  similarly 
connects  Enoch  and  Elijah,  whom  he  speaks  of  as  the  two 
witnesses  of  Bev.  xi.  and  the  '  forerunners  and  heralds  of  the 
Epiphany  of  Christ  from  heaven  ; '  see  him  On  Antichrist,  43, 
&c.  ;  also  in  the  treatise  (numbered  14  in  Lagarde's  ed.)  On 
the  End  of  the  World,  &c.,  §  21  ;  also  On  Daniel  (Lagarde,  59, 
p.  160)  §  22,  compare  also  §  42.  Dr.  Pusey  also,  in  the  same 
note,  quotes  St.  Augustine,  as  follows,  *  What  John  was  to  the 
Fii'st  Advent  that  will  Elias  be  to  the  Second  Advent.  As 
there  are  two  Advents  of  the  Judge,  so  there  are  two  heralds  : 
the  Judge  indeed  one  and  the  same,  but  the  heralds  two,'  Ilom. 
on  St.  John,  iv.  §  5  ;  and,  again,  *  It  is  exceedingly  well  kno\yi 
(ccleberrimum)  in  the  discourses  and  hearts  of  the  faithful  that 
thi'ough  this  Elias,  the  great  and  wondrous  Prophet,  the  law 
being  explained  to  them,  the  Jews  will  believe  in  the  true 
Christ,  i.  e.  our  Christ.  For  with  good  reason  is  his  coming 
hojied  before  the  Coming  of  the  Saviour  as  Judge,  who  now  too 
is,  with  good  reason,  believed  to  be  alive  ; '  also  St.  Chrysostom, 
as  follows,  '  When  He  saith  "  Elias  indeed  cometli  and  will 
restore  all  things,"  He  means  Elias  himself,  and  the  conversion 
of  the  Jews  which  is  then  to  take  place  ;  but  when  He  saith, 
"Which  was  for  to  come,"  He  calls  John  Elias,  with  regard  to 

the  manner  of  his  ministration For  as  the  other  shall  be 

the  forerunner  of  the  Second  Advent,  so  was  this  of  the  First.' 
St.  Chrys.  on  St.  Matt.  Ilom.  Ivii.  i.  See  also  Puscy's  full  note 
on  Mai.  iv.  5,  in  his  Minor  rr(q)hets. 

But  all  this  is  yet  within  the  limits  of  this  pi-esent  age, 
though  at  the  very  close  of  it.  Tiius  little  time  is  left  for  the 
development  of  results  from  any  revival  of  religion  in  the  world 
through  any  turning  of  the  Jews  towards  Christ.    It  is  cut  short 

o  o 


562        The  Restoration,  in  '  the  Regeneration!    [app. 

by  furious  persecution,  perhaps  exasperated  by  the  revival  itself; 
crushed  by  the  temporary  success  of  world-wide  imperial  secular 
power  wielded  by  Antichrist,  whom  in  the  very  darkest  moment 
of  his  apparently  complete  triumph  over  Him  the  Lord  shall 
destroy  %o\th  the  hrightness  of  His  Comhig.  It  is  therefore  on  the 
other  side  of  that  Coming,  and  of  the  General  Resurrection  and 
Judgment,  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  final  full  and  permanent 
realization  of  the  promised  glories  of  the  great  Regeneration,  as 
they  are  pictured  in  the  far-reaching  prophetic  anticipations  of 
both  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Then  it  may  be  that  the 
revelation  of  the  mystery  latent  in  St.  Paul's  reference  in  Rom. 
xi.  32,  to  purposes  of  mercy  in  the  mind  of  God  towards  the 
many  generations  of  Jews  who,  during  the  tines  of  the  Gentiles, 
have  all  been  shut  up  together  in  nnhel'ief,  may  light  up  with 
wondrous  meaning  the  Apostle's  anticipation  of  life  from  the 
dead,  through  their  recovery^,  in  that  Resurrection-state  the 
hope  f^/^  which,  as  the  promise  made  of  God  unto  their  fathers  [Acts 
xxvi.  6),  lay  so  deep  in  the  heart  of  religious  Jews  before  and 
at  the  time  of  Christ ;  which  St.  Paul  so  earnestly  longed  that  he 
might  hy  any  means  attain  iinto  [Philipp.  iii.  11) ;  for  the  sake  of 
which  he  exercised  himself  to  have  ahvays  a  conscience  void  of  offence 
[Acts  xxiv.  14-16)  ;  icnto  which,  he  said,  our  twelve  tribes,  instantly 
serving  God  night  and  day,  hope  to  come  (xxvi.  7). 

'  It  is  not,  of  course,  supposed  that  St.  Paul's  meaning  is  that  all  the  Jews  who 
since  Christ  have  been  born  into  an  inlierited  condition  of  unbelief,  through  in- 
vincible ignorance,  will,  in  the  unseen  state,  now  or  hereafter,  be  brought  to  a  saving 
knowledge  of  and  belief  in  Christ ;  but  that,  in  the  case  of  such  as  have  lived 
good  lives  according  to  their  opportunities,  and  their  natural  and  Old  Testament 
knowledge  of  God  and  of  His  will,  their  inherited  and,  humanly  speaking,  inevitable 
unbelief  will  be  no  bar  to  the  completion  of  their  salvation  by  the  revelation  to 
them  of  the  Christ  Whom  they  had  negatively  rejected,  if,norantly,  in  unbelief. 
Perhaps  we  may  parallel  this  principle  of  the  Divine  dealings  with  the  case  of  the 
mere  outside  heathen,  who  have  never  heard  of  Christ,  and  have  had  only  the 
natural  light  and  law  of  our  common  humanity  to  guide  them,  either  in  belief  or 
practice.  To  such  as,  in  that  condition,  have,  in  however  blind  feeliiir/  after  God, 
followed  that  light  and  obeyed  that  law,  and  not,  in  hard  selfishness,  rejected  and 
trampled  them  under  foot,  we  are  compelled  by  St.  Matt.  xxv.  31,  &c.,  and  Fomans 
i.  18  to  ii.  16,  to  believe,  with  thankful  rejoicing,  that  mercy  will  be  shown,  and 
acceptance ;  and  that,  through  the  unknown  Christ,  at  length  graciously  revealed 
to  them,  a  place,  most  blessed  albeit  not  the  highest,  will  be  opened  to  them, 
in  the  Eternal  Kingdom  of  God. 


NOTE  XVII.]  563 

Note  XVII,  §  200. 

The  Surrender  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  one  explicit  passage  on  this  mysterious  subject  is  i  Cor. 
XV.  20-28.  It  is  important  to  observe  that  St.  Paul  is  there 
clearly  speaking-,  as  he  is  also  in  the  later  verses,  45  etc.,  of 
Christ  in  His  human  nature,  as  the  Second  Adam,  the  Pattern, 
the  Ideal  Man,  the  Head  of  Regenerate  Humanity.  Hence  there 
is  no  question  of  the  Divine  Royalty  and  Kingdom  which  eternally 
belong  to  Him  as  the  Only  Begotten  Son ;  and  so  no  opening 
to  the  heretical  thought  of  Marcellus  of  Ancyra  and  Photinus, 
who,  ignoring  alike  '  His  prc-eternal  existence  and  His  endless 
kingdom  '  (j^v  ■npoaL(i)i>tov  vuap^lv  re  koL  ti]v  aTiXevTrjTov  jBaaiXeMV, 
Socrates,  S.  E.  II.  19)  spoke  of  His  Godhead  as  only  a  sort  of 
temporary  'extension  of  the  Godhead  of  the  Father'  {iKraaiv 
Tiva  Ti]i  Tov  Tlarpos  6€6Ti]TOi,  Theodoret.  II.  10)  to  be  withdrawn 
at  the  close  of  the  Dispensation  (^ix^ra  T't]v  a-vixiraaav  oiKovoixiav 
ttclXlv  avacnTa(T9?jvaL  Kal  crvaTaXijvai  upb'i  tov  6i6v,  e£  ovirep  (^erddrj, 
Jbid.),  and  of  the  Son's  '  being  resolved  into  the  Father '  [ava- 
\vea9aL,  St.  Cyril.  Hierosol.  Catech.  Ilium,  xv.  30)  \  The  king- 
dom spoken  of,  of  which  His  future  subjection  to  the  Father  will 
be  the  delivery  to  the  Father,  is  to  be  associated  in  our  thoughts 
entirely  with  His  incarnate  life  and  redeeming  mediatorial  work. 

'  See  Cyril's  whole  passage  on  this  subject ;  also  St.  Ambrose,  De  Fide,  V.  cap. 
xii-xv.  (fd,  Migne,  vol.  ii.  col.  677).  Note  especially  §  148,  'Si  ut  Filius  hominis 
regnuin  acccpit  Dei  Filius,  ut  Filius  utique  houiinis  etiain  traditurus  est  quod 
accepit  :  Si  ut  Filius  hominis  tradit,  ergo  et  ut  Filius  homiuis  subjectionem, 
utique  per  conditioutm  carnis,  non  per  majestatem  divinitatis,  agnoscit ; '  and 
154,  'Nou  utique  secundum  divinitatem  subjectus  est  Dei  Filius;'  and  165,  'Si 
per  naturam  subjiceretur,  semper  subjectus  maneret  :  cum  vero  subjiciendus 
dicatur  in  tempore,  dispensatioiiis  ergo  susceptae,  non  perpetuae  infirmitatis  erit 
ilia  subjectio  ; '  and  172,'  Secundum  humanae  naturae  assunqjtionem  erit  ilia  sub- 
jectio.'  See  also  Archdeacon  Norris'  note,  in  his  'New  Tcdnmmt,^  on  the  place  in 
I  Cor.  XV,  and  his  reference  to  St.  Chrysostom.  Bernardin  of  Picquigny  writes 
well,  in  his  Triplex  Exposilio,  on  i  Cor.  xv.  25,  etc.,  '  Oportet  Christum  a  dextris 
Dei  sedentem  regnare  eo  quo  coepit  niodo  .  .  .  usqucquo  Pater  aeternus,  suura 
adimplens  promissum,  ponet  oinnes  ejus  initidcos  sub  pedibus  ejus,  id  est,  usque  ad 
finem  mundi  .  .  .  Tunc  et  ipse  Filius,  ut  homo,  cum  omnibus  suis,  id  est,  Christus 
caput  Ecclesiae,  cum  omnibus  membris  suis,  subjicietur  Deo ;  Deuraque  gratus 
adorabit,  laudabit,  et  glorificabit  in  acternum.' 

0  0  3 


564     The  Bible  sequence  of  '  The  Last  Things',     [app. 

It  is  to  be  elated  from  His  Glorification  and  Exaltation  in  His 
Resurrection  and  His  Ascension ;  which  Glorification  and  Ex- 
altation are  the  reward  of  His  Sufferings   and  of  His  perfect 
obedience  unto  death.     It  is  that  which  is  spoken  of  in  Psalm 
ex.  and  in   Juh)i  xii.   23,   xiii.  31;   Matt.  xxvi.  64,  xxviii.   18, 
Acts  ii.  2,?,)  iii-  21,  v.  31,  vii.  ^^,  ix.  3,  x.  2,^;  Rom.  xiv.  9  ;  Ejih. 
i.  20-23;  Philijjp.  ii.  9-1 1  ;   Col.  i.  18-20,  iii.  i  ;  Hetj.  ii,  5,  etc., 
X.  12,  13  ;  and  Rev.  i.   13-18,  v.  6-14,  vi.  2,  vii.  9-17,  xiv.  14, 
xvii.  14,  xix.  11-16,  XX.  11-T3,  compared  with  Matt.  xxv.  31, 
etc.     It  is  given  to  Him  as  Man,  for  the  purpose  of  overcoming 
all  evil  and  all  opposition  to  Himself  and   to  God,  and  so  of 
ultimately  realising  the  Divine  Ideal  of  Man  and  Man's  World 
in  their  perfect  conformity  to   God's  Will,  and  to   His  great 
Purpose  in  their  Creation.     It  is  noticeable  how  the   inspired 
Apostolic  thought  recurs  to  the  language  of  Psalm  viii.,  as  the 
Divine    Ideal   of   Man,    the   great   Charter   of   Humanity,   first 
realized  in  Christ  the  Second  Adam,  and,  through  Him  and  His 
completed  Work,  to  be  realized  in  His  members  also.     Eph.  i.  22 
quotes  Ps.  viii.  6 ;  so  does  Ileb.  ii.  5)  &c.,  and  notably  the  great 
passage  1  Cor.  xv.  27,  28.    The  outward  token  of  the  completion 
of  Christ's  Work,  of  the  great  Consummation,  for  which  all 
Creation,  groaning  and  travailivg  in  pain  together,  waits  with  us, 
is  the  redemption  of  our  body  [Rom.  viii.  23),  the  final  victory  over 
tJie  last  enemy ^  in  the  Resurrection,  which,  immediately  following 
the  final  overthrow  of  the  Dragon,  the  Beast,  and  the  False  Prophet, 
the  trinity  of  evil  {Rev.  xv.  13,  xix.  20,  xx.  10),  immediately 
precedes  the  casting  of  Death  and  Hades  into  the  lake  of  fire 
{Rev.  XX.    14).     Then   the  New   Heaven    and    Earth,   and   the 
descent  upon  it  of  Christ  with  His  redeemed  and  glorified  Church, 
the  holy  city,  the  new  Jerusalem,  wherein  He  shall  reign  over  the 
House  of  Jacob  for  ever,  and  of  His  Kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end 
{Luhe  i.  33).     Then  under  Christ  as  the  Head  of  every  man,  the 
true  King  of  Men,  the  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords,  the 
Kingdom  and  dominion  and  the  greatness  of  the  Kingdom  under  the 
whole  heaven  shall  be  given  to  the  People  cf  the  Saints  of  the  Most 
High  {Dan.  vii.  27),  in  whom  are  realized  at  once  the  characters 
and  the  promised  blessings  of  the  Eight  Beatitudes. 


NT.xvii.]  CJuns£  s  abiding  Presenceo7i  the'  New  Earth!  565 

So  far  all  seems  plain.  But  what  is  not  generally  realized,  it 
is  to  be  feared,  among"  us  now  is  this — That  the  Bible  Revelation 
distinctly  ends  with  Christ  on  earth,  the  renewed  earth,  and  that 
for  ever,  as  the  home  and  dwelling'-place  of  that  Regenerated 
Humanity  of  which  He  is  the  abiding-  Head,  in  that  Humanity 
of  His  which,  including  His  Mystical  Body  vitally  united  to 
Himself,  is  the  true  Temple  of  the  Lord  God  Almighti/,  John  ii.  21  ; 
Col.  ii.  9  ;  Bev.  xxi.  22;  i  Cor.  vi.  19,  iii.  i6  ;  2  Cor.  vi.  i.6; 
Ej)h.  ii.  21.  The  characteristic  and  all-inclusive  ultimate  bles- 
sing, as  promised  alike  in  the  Old  Testament  pictures  of  the 
Final  State  and  in  the  New  Testament  echoes  of  them,  is  ever 
this,  The  Tabernacling  of  God  with  men,  so  that  He  shall  dwell 
with  them,  and  they  shall  he  His  People,  and  God  Himself  shall  be 
with  them  {^  EmmanueV)^  their  God  [Rev.  xxi.  3).  The  abiding 
guarantee  of  this  supreme  blessing  is  the  Presence  on  earth  of 
the  Incarnate  Son,  the  Second  Adam,  and  also  the  abiding 
Emmanuel.  Earth  will  then  be  part  of  Heaven  ;  the  contrast, 
opposition,  or  distinction  between  them  for  ever  done  away, 
God's  will  being  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven,  and  so  His 
hinrjdom  fully  covie.  For  Heaven  is  no  special  distinct  locality 
in  the  great  universe  of  space ;  but  is  wherever  God  can  fully 
manifest  Himself  to  His  fully  receptive  creature.  And  that  He 
will  do  this  on  earth  to  Man,  when  sin,  the  one  barrier  to  His 
gracious  and  loving  Manifestation  of  Himself  in  and  through 
His  Son,  is  done  away,  when  the  Son's  work  for  Man  is  com- 
plete— this  is  the  final  sum,  and  the  most  blessed  closing  assur- 
ance, of  the  Bible  Revelation.  I  humbly  believe  it  to  be  a  great 
drawback  from  the  strength  and  definiteness  of  our  faith  and 
hope  that  this  is  not  more  realized  among  us  than  it  is ;  and 
that  the  minds  of  so  many  are  possessed  with  vague  ideas  of 
some  final  di.sappearanee  of  this  present  earth- — ideas  iavoured  by 
the  misrenderings  of  our  English  Version,  which  speaks  of  the 
end  of  the  world  where  it  should  speak  of  the  close  of  the  age — and 
of  some  shadowy  Heaven — no  one  knows  where — to  follow  ;  a 
heaven  of  a  shadowy  so-called  merely  '  spiritual'  happiness — no 
one  knows  what — but  something  utterly  unlike  and  alien  from 
our  present  human  social  existence.    The  language  of  the  Lord's 


566    The  primitive  belief,  yewish  and  Christian,    [app. 

Prayer,  .and  of  His  Parables  of  the  Talents  and  the  Pounds,  the 
language  of  St.  Paul  in  Romans  viii.,  and  of  general  prophetic 
description,  re-stamped  by  New  Testament  Inspiration  in  2  Tet. 
iii.  and  J\ev.  xxi.,  xxii.,  are  the  standing  warrant  of  a  much 
more  glorious  and  definite  anticipation,  a  far  more  truly  human, 
real^  and  presently  influential  hope. 

This  great  thought  has  the  support,  if  anything  were  needed 
beyond  Holy  Scripture,  of  early  traditional  belief  alike  among 
Christians  and  Jews.  Mede  says  {Paraphrase  and  Exi).  of 
2  Pet.  iii,  AVorks,  vol.  ii.  p.  754)  that  it  was  one  '  E..  Samuel, 
one  of  the  Doctors  of  the  Gemara  or  Gloss  of  their  Talmud, 
which  was  finished  about  500  years  after  Christ,'  who  im- 
peached and  opposed,  in  the  latter  times,  'the  more  ancient 
opinion  and  tradition  of  the  Renovation  of  the  World ; '  and 
that  *  After  this  time  there  appears  to  have  been  amongst  the 
Jews  a  sect  of  the  followers  of  the  opinion  of  this  E.  Samuel, 
which  at  length  was  greatly  advanced  by  the  authority  of  that 
learned  Maimonides  ....  Nevertheless  Aben  Ezra,  who  lived 
not  long  after  Maimonides,  maintained  still  the  contrary,  as 
othei's  also  did  ; '  and  he  mentions  particularly  a  Tractate  of 
R.  Isaac  Aharhinel,  'wherein  all  the  arguments  brought  against 
the  Renovation  are  confuted.' 

Among  the  Fathers,  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  4th  cent., 
witnesses  to  the  same  belief  in  his  XVth  Catechesis,  §  3,  saying 
that  '  on  the  glorious  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  from 
heaven,  yiVerai  tov  Koajiov  tovtov  crui/re'Xeia  kol  6  yevrjTos  ovros  Ko'cr/xoy 
TTukiv  avaKaivoTvoiflrai.  eVftS?)  yap  Koi  (f)6opa  Koi  KXonrj  Koi  jjLOi^ela 
Koi  Tiav  fl8os  apapTLMV  fx^^l  *""'  '''1^  "YV^  '^"'  aipara  e(^'  a1p.a(nv  ejJ.l-yq, 
iv  Tw  Koapcp  Lva  p.r]  fieivrj  to  Bavpaarov  tovto  olKrjrrjpiov  avopias 
TreTrXrjpcupevov,  irapfpxfTai  6  Koapos  ovros,  ifa  6  KaXKioiv  dva8ei)(djj.' 
And  he  speaks,  ibid.,  of  a  Resurrection  of  Nature  as  well  as  of 
Man,  "ElXijCTti  Tovs  ovpavovs  6  Kvpios,  ov^  tva  airoXia-rj  tovtovs,  nXX' 
iva  avTovs  ttuXiv  KoXXiovas  eyeiprj  ....  dvdaTaaiv  irpoaboKoipfu  koi 
tS)U  ovpavoyu  ....  UapfpxfTai  Toivvv  ra  (paivopeva,  Ka\  tpxerai  to. 
7rpoa8oKU)peva  rd  rovrcov  KaWlova. 

Similarly  Origen,  whom  Mede  (vol.  ii.  p.  766)  quotes  as  say- 
ing. Contra  Celsum,  lib.  Ill,  Ovk  dpvovpfda  t6  Kadapcnov  nvp,  koi 
Trjv  TOV  Kocrpov  cf)6opau,  tnl  Kadaipeafi  Tijs  KOKiai  koX  dvaKaivaicTeus  tov 


NOTE  XVII.]     of  the  'Renovation  of  the  World!         567 

TTHin-or,  words  more  noticeable  because  Origan  was  a  strong 
opponent  of  all  ideas  of  a  carnal  millennium  on  earth,  such  as 
those  of  Cerinthus,  Papias,  and  Nepos  (if  Eusebius'  report  of 
them,  //.  E.  iii.  28,  39,  and  vii.  24,  is  to  be  trusted)  or  those 
ascribed  to  ApoUinaris,  for  whose  views  see  Epiphanius,  III.  26. 

The  passage  which  ^lede  quotes  from  Tertullian,  Adv.  Mar- 
don.  III.  24,  and  a  strange  passage  in  Lactantius,  Inst.  Div. 
VII,  24-26,  both  obscure  the  whole  subject  by  placing  the 
Advent  of  Christ,  the  Resurrection  and  Judgment,  and  the 
Descent  of  the  New  Jerusalem  before,  and  the  Reign  of  Christ 
and  His  Saints,  and  His  dwelling  with  them,  on  a  happy  and 
peaceful  earth,  during,  the  Millennial  Period.  This  involves 
Lactantius  in  the  express  assei'tion  of  the  co-existence  on  earth 
of  the  glorified  saints  in  the  risen  state  with  the  '  nationes,' 
their  subjects,  still  '  in  corporibus,'  in  the  natural  life,  though 
preserved  from  death  through  the  Thousand  Years,  after  which 
the  '  princeps  daemonum,'  being  loosed,  will  seduce  them  into  a 
war  against  the  Holy  City  which  will  end  in  their  utter  de- 
struction. All  this  is  absurd.  It  arises  from  i.  The  taking  the 
First  JResurrection  of  Rev.  xx.  5  to  be  a  literal  bodily  Resur- 
rection' ;  and,  2.  The  transference  to  the  Millennial  Period  of 
features  that  belong  only  to  the  Final,  the  Consummated  and 
heavenly  State.  The  Millennial  Period  ended,  Lactantius  says, 
'  Renovabitur  mundus  a  Deo,  et  coelum  complicabitur,  et  terra 
mutabitur ;  et  transformabit  Deus  homines  in  similitudinem 
angelorum,  et  erunt  candidi,  sicut  nix ;  et  versabuntur  semper 
in  conspectu  Omnipotentis,  ct  Domino  suo  sacriticabunt,  et 
servient  in  aeternum.  Eodem  tempore  fiet  secunda  ilia  et 
publica  omnium  rcpurrcctio,  in  qua  excitabimtur  injusti  ad 
cruciatus  sempiternos.'  These  last  words  bear  witness  to  the 
expectation  of  the  '  Renovation  of  the  "World  ; '  but  it  is  impos- 
sible that  cither  Tertullian  or  Lactantius  can  have  had  the 
actual  text  of  the  Apocalypse  before  them  while  they  wrote 
as  they  did  on  the  general  subject. 

St.  Augustine  writes,  De  Civ.  Dei,  xx.  14  (Migne,  VII.  679), 
*  Peracto  quippc  judicio  tunc  esse  desinet  hoc  coelum  et  haec 
terra,   quando    incipiet    esse    coelum    novum    ct    terra    nova. 

'  See  St.  Augustine's  argument  that  it  is  a  spiritual  Resurrection,  De  Civ.  Dei, 
XX.  vii.  vii.,  Migne,  vol.  vii.  col.  665. 


568  The  'Stcrrender  of  the  Kingdom'.  [app. 

Mutatione  namque  rerum,  nou  omui  modo  interitu  tiansibit 
hie  muiidus.  Unde  et  Apostolus  ait,  Praeterit  enim  fi(jura 
Jiiijus  mundi,  volo  vos  sine  soUicitudine  esse.  Figura  ergo 
praeterit,  non  natura.'  On  this  passage  Bisliop  Newton, 
Pro2)hecies,  Dissert,  xxv.  p.  597,  writes  thus,  '  And  indeed  why 
should  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  be  destroyed,  when 
there  shall  l)e  no  more  sin,  when  "there  shall  be  no  more 
curse,"  when  "  there  shall  be  no  more  death  1 "  The  heaven  and 
the  earth  of  old  (2  Fet.  iii.  5)  for  the  wickedness  of  man  perished 
by  water :  "  The  heaven  and  the  earth  which  ai'e  now,  are  re- 
served unto  fire  against  the  day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of 
ungodly  men  ; "  but  why  should  not  the  new  heaven  and  the  new 
earth  be  preserved,  "  wherein  dwelleth  I'ighteousness  %  "  ' 

It  would  seem  then  that  the  Surrender  of  the  Kingdom  is  co- 
incident with  the  Return,  in  fulfilment  of  the  Angels'  predic- 
tion, Acts  i.  II,  of  the  Second  Adam,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  from 
the  Right  Hand  of  the  Father,  to  the  Renovated  Earthy  token  lie 
shall  have  put  down  all  rule  and  all  authority  and  power,  and  put 
all  things  under  his  feet.  For  this  exercise  of  power  such  as  He 
has  wielded  from  His  Ascension  till  His  Return  there  will  be  no 
further  need,  when  the  great  Purpose  for  which  it  is  wielded 
shall  have  been  for  ever  secured.  As  Man,  the  Head  and  Kins- 
of  His  Elect  Church  and  of  redeemed  Humanity,  His  place  will 
be  for  ever  with  Man,  in  Man's  new  and  everlasting  home,  the 
gloriously  regenerated  earth,  to  guide  and  direct  the  progressive 
moral  and  spiritual  development,  through  the  agency  of  His 
great  instrument,  His  Elect  Church,  His  mystical  Body,  of  the 
myriad  millions  of  rh.  IQvi],  the  uncovenanted  saved.  For  this 
work  He  will  re'ujn  over  the  House  of  Jacol)  for  ever,  and  of  His 
Kingdom  there  shall  he  no  end.  While  He  will  be  the  Head 
of  every  man  (i  Cor.  xi.  3),  God  will  be  His  Head  (ib.),  and  as  re- 
deemed Humanity  will  be  Christ,  s,  so  Christ  will  be  God's  (i  Cor. 
iii.  23).  Subjection,  in  perfect  submissive  and  active  conformity 
of  will,  has  ever,  in  the  days  of  His  Flesh,  and  since,  been  the 
mark,  and  indeed  the  very  moral  perfection,  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
We  need  not  therefore  stumble  at  the  revelation  that,  when  the 
Divine  Ideal  in  the  Creation  of  Man  shall  have  been  in  Him 


NOTE  XVII.]  Christ,  the  Head  of  redeemed HiLmanity ,  569 

fully  realized,  it  will  be  so  still.  Such  filial  subjection  and 
conformity  are  the  very  crown  of  Human  Nature;  and  must 
therefore  be  chiefly  seen  in  Ilim,  the  Pattern.  Nay,  it  will  be 
the  very  seal  and  token,  indeed,  in  a  sense,  the  cause,  of  His  abid- 
ing- Royal  Supremacy  over  the  Race  He  so  loves,  and  for  whose 
sake  He  was  content  to  sanctrfy  Himself,  and.  Son  though  He  were, 
and  i//e  Captain  of  oxir  Salvation,  to  learn  obedience  hij  the  things 
which  lie  suffered,  and,  heing  made  perfect  through  sufferings,  so  to 
bring  His  ma7ii/  brethren  %inio  glory ;  a  glory  of  which,  for  Him  and 
for  them,  the  very  essence  is  perfect  subjection  to  God,  in 
supreme  love  to  the  Father,  ^oith  all  the  heart,  with  all  the  soul, 
and  with  all  the  mind.  '  Sancti  subjiciuntur  Deo  ut  patri;  Deum 
laudant,  amant,  g-lorificant,  ut  omnium  bonorurn  auctorem. 
Deus  sanctos  dilig-it  ut  filios,  omnium  suorum  bonorum  posses- 
sione  replet  et  beatificat,  ut  suae  felicitatis  haeredes.  O  beatum 
commercium !  O  felicem  sanctorum  Deo  subjectionem  !  Erg-o 
Deo  subjici  et  servire,  regnare  est ;  ncc  est  alia  sanctorum  bea- 
titudo,  aut  aliud  rcg-num  aeternum  quam  Deo  subjici,  servire, 
Deum  amare,  adorare,  laudare'  (Bernardinus  a  Piconio,  in  i  Cor. 
XV.  28). 

Such,  it  would  seem,  will  be  the  final  expanded  result,  after 
slow  evolution,  of  the  mysterious  intimation,  the  typical  seci*et, 
which  lay  hid  in  the  Presence  of  the  Shekinah  Cloud  and  Light 
upon  the  Mercy-seat  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  the  Tabernacle  of 
Israel  in  the  Wilderness.  The  process  of  its  evolution  may  be 
traced  through  such  marked  stages  as  the  following  : — The  Con- 
quest of  the  Heathen  Races  and  the  Possession  of  the  Promised 
Land,  events  typical  of  the  saints'  final  Inheritance  of  the  Harth  ; 
The  fuller  development  of  the  Theocratic  Idea — taking  a  more 
visible  and  outward  form  because  of  the  backwardness  of  their 
unsi)iritual  hearts — in  the  Holy  City,  with  its  perniiinent  Temple, 
and  with  the  glorious  Palace  and  extended  rule  of  its  Peaceful 
King,  in  the  Solomonic  era  ;  all  true  and  most  significant  types 
(see  Psalms  xlv.  and  Ixxii.)  though  earthly,  and  so  partial  and 
imperfect,  and  destined  to  be  broken  and  cast  aside ;  Next,  in 
more  spiritual  wise,  through  the  Captivity,  and  then  the  Disper- 
sion, resulting  in  an  extended  currency  of  better  moral  and  spiritual 


5  70      binds  it  to  God  tJirongh  His  Incarnation. 

ideas  among  the  Nations;  Then  through  the  Catholic  Church  of 
tJie  Times  of  the  Gentiles,  a  spiritual  Israel  of  God  spread  through- 
out the  world,  for  the  redemption  of  such  among  tJie  Nations  as 
will  to  be  redeemed.  All  these  are  stages  working  upward  to  a 
glorious,  a  complete,  a  permanent  fulfilment,  in  the  Regeneration. 
The  outward  and  visible  sign,  the  eternal  guarantee  and  secu- 
rity, of  the  final  completed  blessedness  of  redeemed  Humanity ; 
the  indestructible  conduit  and  channel,  where  through  as  through 
a  Sacrament,  God  will  ever  inflow  into  tJie  Saints,  and  overflow 
upon  t/ie  Nations  ;  will  be  the  actual  Presence  in  flesh,  upon  the 
renovated  earth,  of  the  One  Mediator,  the  Incarnate  Son,  the  God- 
Man,  the  Shekinah,  the  Image,  and  Glory,  of  God,  Emmanuel, 
God  with  us,  our  King,  Perfect  God  and  Perfect  Man,  the  Head 
of  every  man,  as  God  of  Him. 

GLORIA    IN    EXCELSIS    DEO, 
ET   IN    TERRA    PAX    HOMINTBUS    BONAE    VOLUNTATIS. 


THY    KINGDOM    COME, 
THY   WILL   BE    DONE,    IN    EARTH    AS    IT   IS    IN    HEAVEN. 

AMEN. 


EVEN    SO,    COME,    LORD   JESUS. 


APPENDIX  11. 


ADDITIONAL   NOTES   AND   REFERENCES. 

Sect.  8.  p.  1 4.  The  Old  Testament  pi-epares  the  way  for  the  Christian 
beliefs  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation. — See  St.  Hil. 
Pictav.'s  argument,  in  his  De  Trinitate,  Books  IV.  and  V,  that 
God  in  the  Old  Testament  is  not  '  solitarius ; '  also  Book  VI. 
19  and  VIII.  47  ;  also  TertuU.  adv.  Prax.  5. 

9.  p.  15.     God  is  eternally  a  Father. — St.  Leo,  Serm.  XXIV.  (vol  i. 

84,  210), '  Sempiterne  enim  Filius,  Filius  est ;  senipiterne  Pater, 
Pater  est;'  also  Pearson,  Creed,  Art.  II.  His  only  Son.  III. 
Ihid.     The  Father  contemplates  Himself  in  the  Son.—  St.  Hil.  Pictav. 
De  Trin.  IX.  36  (Migne,  vol.  ii.  col.  307). 

1 0,  p.  1 6.     The  Father  has  ever  worked  through  the  Son. — St.  Ath. 

Cord.  Ar.  III.   12,  olhtv  Se  iariv,  6  /if)  Si'  YioC  ivepyel  6  Ylar^p. 

21.  p.  33.     On  the  Plural  Name  of  God. — Liddon,  BamiMn  Led.  IT. 

p.  72. 

22.  p.  37.     Mediatorial  relation  of  the  Son  in  respect  of  the  preserva- 

tion of  the  Universe. — St.  Irenaeus,  adv.  Ilaer.  V.  p.  586. 
42.  p.  7 1.   Reflex  illustration  of  the  Divine  from  the  Human  Nature. — 

Tertull.  adv.  Prax.  5. 
48.  p.  87.     Free-Will    essential   to  finite  personal  life. — St.  Thomas 

Aquin.  Sum.  V^,  Qu.  Ixiii.  Art.  i,  in  cd.  Migne,  vol.  i.  p.  1 1  20. 
5G.  p.  100.     Man  the  representative  microcosm. — Bp.  Andrewes,  ^S'er- 

mons,  Vol.  i.  Serm.  XVI.  p   275  ;  and  Bp.  Bull,  Works,  Vol.  i. 

Serm,  XL  On  the  Existence  and  Nature  of  Angels,  p.  267  ;  and 

the  Russian  theologian,  IMacaire,  Bp.  of  Vinnitza,  Theologie  Dog- 

matiqne  Orthodoxe,  Part.  II.  ch.  i.  §  76,  p.  517  ;  and  Noirlicu, 

Dogmes  Princvpaux  du  Christianisme,  ch.  x.  p.  224. 
59.  p.  III.     Possible  benefit  to  the  angels  from  the  Incarnation. — St. 

Hippol.  Against  Beron  and  Helix,  2  (Lagarde's  ed.  p.  59, 1.  26). 
Jh.  p.  112.     Created    things    not    instantly   consummated. — St.  Iren. 

Adv.  Haer.  IV.  cap.  73,  p.  520;   St.  Hil.  Pictav.  De  Trin.  XL 

44  (Migne,  IL  488). 


572  Additional  Notes  and  References,     [app.  ii. 

Sect.  G8.  p.  134.  Pity  felt  by  the  Ao'yor  ua-apKos  for  the  Gentiles. — 
Commenting  on  Ps.  Ixix.  26,  where  the  Lxx.  has  koI  eVl  t6  aXyos 
Tcbv  TpavjiaTav  ixov  TTpoa-edrjKav,  St.  Hippolytus,  Ag.  the  Jews,  7  (ed. 
Lagarde,  p.  66.   16),  paraphrases,  IlpoTepop  fiev  clXyos  flxov   as 

<^i\dvdpunvos   Bui  Trjv  TrKdvrjv  TOiV  iOvwv,  a\X  em  to   uXyoi  wpoaedrjKav 
poi  iTepov  TvKavrjQiVTfs  Koi  avroi, 

70.  p.  138.  Revelation  to  Primeval  Man. — St.  Ath.  Be  Incarn.,  quoted 

by  Bull,  Disc.  V.  On  the  state  of  Man  before  the  Fall,  Bull's 
Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  103. 

71.  p.  140.     Visible  Appearance   of  the  Son  to  Adam. — St.  Hippol. 

Fragment  21,  in  ed.  Lagarde,  p.  125. 
73.  p.  143.    Targum  Paraphrase  of  the  Name  of  God. — Pearson,  Creed, 
Art.  II.  His  only  Son,  I.  '  Thirdly,'  note. 

82.  p.  158.     The  Mediator  is  also  the  Judge. — St.  Iren.  Adv.  Ilaer. 

IV.  cap.  lxx.  p.  507. 

83.  p.  161.     Add.  to  refs.  in  Note,  St.  Aug.  De  Genesi  ad  litt.  VIII. 

xviii.  37;  Migne,  iii.  Part.  I.  p.  387. 
95.  p.  192.  To  the  ref.  to  St.  Cyril  Hierosol.  Catech.  x,  add  the  follow- 
ing, from  St.  Hippolytus,  Be  Antichristo,  3,  on  the  impartial 
tenderness  of  the  Word,  'ETreiS^  t6  iavrov  evcnrXny^^vov  Koi  airpoaoi- 
TToXrjTtTov  evSeiKwrat  8ia  Travrav  tcov  ayiaiv  6  Aoyos,  ecpodid^uiv  (cat 
pvOpi^oju  avTov  w?  epTreipos  lurpos  TVpos  to  rjp.2i>  crvp(pepovTa  iiriaTd- 
pepos  rt]V  T(Jov  avOpconoiV  daOevnav,  tovs  pev  dyvoovvras  e'/cStSacr/cetf 
TTeipdrai,  tovs  Se  TrXaPapivovs  eniCTTpecpei  els  ttjp  eavTov  dXrjdlpTjv 
686p,  toIs  pep  peTci  TriaTecos  ^rjTovaiP  evaoXois  evpicTKopepos,  toIs  8e 
KaOapo'is  oppaai  koi  aypTj  jcapSt'a  Kpoveiv  ttjp  6vpap  eTTidvpovcnp  evBiis 
apoiyopepos.  OuSeVa  yap  aTTo/SaXXerat  tcop  eavTov  8ovXa)v  i)s  pfj  opra 
a^iop  Tuiu  6eio}P  pvaTripLcov,  ov  ttXovctiop  TrpoTipcop  TrevrjTos  ov8e 
Tvevqra  bia  to  ptTpiop  e^ovOevap  ov8e  (Bdp^apop  uveiSi^cop  ovSe  top 
evpov)(OP  COS  pr]  apSpionop  dcpopi^cop  ov8e  5^Xo  8ia  ttjp  e^  ^PX^]S  yepo- 
pePTjP  TvapaKorjV  pt,acop  ovSe  top  cippepa  8ia  ti)v  napdiSacTLP  UTipu^cop, 
dXAa  ndpTas  ddXnwp  Koi  rrdpTas  crco^eco  enidvpwp,  irdpTas  v'lovs  Qiov 
KaTapTLcrai  diXutP  koi  tovs  TrdpTas  aylovs  els  epa  TeXeiop  auOpcoTTOP 
KaXu>v.  'Es  yap  koL  q  tov  Qeov  limy,  St  ov  koi  rjpus  tv\6pt€s  ttjp 
dia  TOV  Aylov  JIpevpaTos  dpayevprjaip  els  epa  TeXeiop  /cat  enovpaPiov 
fiv6pu>TT0P  ol  ndpTes  KaTaPTrjcrai  em6vpovpev.  'EneiSr]  yap  6  Aoyos 
TOV  Oeov  utrapKos  top  epeSvaaro  ttjp  dyiav  adpKa  e<  Trjs  ayias  irap- 
Bevov  ws  pvp<pios  ipaTiop  e^vcpdpus  iavTM  tjp  tco  aravpiKco  nddei,  OTrtuf 
avyKepdcrns  to  6pt]tuv  I'jpaip  awpa  tt]  eavTov  dvpdpei  koi  pi^as  Ta>  dfpddpTco 
TO  (pdapTov  Ka\  TO  daOepes  T>j  lij)^vpa)  (juxrrj  top  dnoXXvpepop  updpoinop. 


APP.  II.]     Additional  Notes  and  References.  573 

Sect.  95.  p.  193.  Tlie  Angel  ichich  redeemed  me. — Eather,  The  An ij el 
the  Redeemer,  7i<3Ll  '^';^?'?l'.  See  Macdonald,  Pentateuch,  III.  ii. 
I,  vol.  ii.  p.  240. 

9G.  p.  196.  The  two  created  angels. — See  Euseb.  Dem.  Efcing.  V.  ii. 
P-  237- 

lb.  p.  197.  Add  to  note  2. — So  St.  Ambrose,  De  Abraham,  I.  vi.  51 
(Migne,  i.  440)  on  Gen.  xix.  i, '  Ubi  gratia  largienda  est,  Christus 
adest :  ubi  exercenda  sevcritas,  soli  adsunt  nainistri,  deest 
Jesus.' 

99.  p.  202.  Its  outward  token,  the  Cloudy  Pillar. — Compare  Num- 
bers, xiv.  14. 

101.  ji.  209.     The  invisible  Agent  in  that  act  of  doom. — So  Euseb. 

Dem.  Evan.  V.  19. 
105.  p.  215.    To  Ezekiel  and  Daniel. — And  see,  before  Ezekiel,  Amos 

vii.  7,  and  ix.  i. 
108.  p.  221.     Add  to  note.  —  St.  Hijjpolytus,  in  his  comment  on  the 

passage  (Lagarde's  ed.  No.  59.  §  24,  p.  160),   takes  the  Man 

clothed  in  linen  to  be  6  Ki'pioy,  and  distinguishes  him  from  St. 

Michael. 
lb.  p.  222.     May  put  forward  what  is  good  in  them. — See  St.  Thomas 

Aq.  I".  Qu.  cxiii.  Art.  7,  ad  fin. 
lb.  p.  223.    Priestly  vesture. — So  St.  Hippolytus  speaks  of  the  lepan- 

Kos  x''^'^"  of  the  Word,  On  the  Vision  of  Daniel,  ed.  Lagarde, 

p.  161,  1.  4. 

112.  p.  233.    The  familiar  division  into  the  Pro])hetic,  the  Sacerdotal, 

and  the  Regal  Action  of  the  Mediator. — The  earliest  occurrence 
of  this  that  I  have  met  with  is  in   Euseb.  Dem.  Evan.  Book 
VIII.  Prooem.  p.  363. 
//;.  p.  235.     The  one  key  to  the  right  understanding  of  Revelation. — 
Comp.  St.  Leo,  Serm.  LXVI.  ii.  (Migne,  vol.  i.  col.  365  (256)). 

113.  p.  236.     Secret  and  undisclosed,  although   incessant,   operation 

of  the  Mediator. — Comp.  St.  Athau.  Cont.  Ar.  III.  xxx.  p.  184. 
115.  p.  239.  Teaching  His  ancient  Church. — So  St.  Hippolytus,  Ag. 
yoetus  (Lagarde,  No.  3.  §  12.  p.  51,  1.  24),  'Ei*  tovtoi%  toIvw  [y6- 
fx(0  KOI  npocjiTjTais]  iroXiTtvopfvos  6  Ao'yor  i<p6iyy(T0  rrtpi  favroi  (^67 
yup  avTos  fuvTov  Kfjpv^  (yefero)  8eiKvvu>v  pfWovra  Adyoi'  (paivecrdai, 
(V  avdpunois,  81  tjv  alriav  oi/tcoj  e^ua,  'Epcf)aV7)<!  f'yfuuprjv  Toly  f'/ne 
fif)  (qTov<ni>,  fup(6r)u  ro(s  (p(  pr)  (TTtpuToxTiv,  Jsd.  Ixv.  I  ;  aUo  On 
Anticlirist,  §  2  (Lagarde's  ed.  p.  2,  1.  12),  OItoi  yup  nvevpan  npo- 


574  Additional  Notes  and  References,     [app.  ii. 

(f)i]TLKa  ol  narepes  KaTTjpTicrfj.ei'Oi  Koi  vtt  uvtov  tov  Auyov  d^ta>s  rfriprj- 
fifvoiy  opydvutv  hiK-QV  iavTois  fjvcofievoi,  €)(0VTes  (v  iavTins  dti  tov  \6yov 
ws  TrK^KTpov,  8i  ov  Kivuvfitvoi  aTrrjyyeWou  ravra  anep  fjdiKev  6  Geo? 
01  Tvpo(^r)Tai..  Ov  yap  i^  Idias  dvvdpecos  e(})dtyyovTo  (/zij  TrXai/w)  ov8e 
anep  avTo\  e'/SouXoiro.  Tavra  eKj'jpvrrov,  dXXci  npuiTov  pev  8i.a  tov 
Aoyov  f(T<)(Pi^ovTo  opOoiS,  ervfiTa  fit'  opaparuiv  Trpoe^iSdcTKOvTO  to.  peX- 
Xoiira  Ka\S)s,  fid  ovto)  TTfTTSicrpevoi,  fXeyov  ravTa,  dnep  avToli  rjv  povois 
dno  rev  Qeoii   diroKeKaXvppfua,  roTy  6e   XoltvoIs  dTroKfKpvppiva.      Also, 

see  Burton,  Testim.  Antenicene  Fathers,  §  95,  p.  179,  for  the 
language  of  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria  on  this  point,  speaking 

of  Christ  as  6  Trpo^Tjrr/?  TTpocprjTcov  Koi  Kvpios  Travrus  7rpo(pr]TiKov 
Xoyov. 

Sect.  118,  p.  244.  That  earlier  Gospel  of  Justification  by  Faith. — 
See  Card.  Newman,  Parochial  Sermons,  Vol.  ii.  Serm.  YIII. 
pp.  94,  95:  'The  evangelical  covenant,  which  was  not  to  be 
pi'eached  till  near  two  thousand  years  afterwards,  was  re- 
vealed and  tranf^acted  in  Abraham's  person  .  .  .  He  was  justi- 
fied by  faith,  he  trusted  in  God's  power  to  raise  the  dead,  he 
looked  forward  to  the  day  of  Christ,  and  was  vouchsafed  a 
vision  of  the  Atoning  Sacrifice  on  Calvary;'  and  the  following 
beautiful  places  of  St.  Leo,  Serm.  XXXI.  (Migue,  vol.  i.  col. 
234  (ill)),  '  Omnes  sancti  qui  Salvatoris  nostri  tempora  prae- 
cesserunt,  per  banc  fidem  justificati,  et  per  hoc  sacramentum 
Christi  sunt  corpus  effecti,  exspectantes  universalem  creden- 
tium  redemptionem  in  semine  Abraham  .  .  .  qui  est  Christus;' 
Serm.  LII.  (i.  314(199)),  '  Non  enira  quia  secundum  iuscruta- 
bile  propositum  Sapientiae  Dei  novissimis  diebus  Verbum  caro 
factum  est  ideo  salutiferae  Virginis  partus  extremi  tantum 
teraporis  generationibus  j)rofuit,  et  non  se  etiam  in  j^raeteritas 
refudit  aetates.  Omnis  prorsus  antiquitas  colentium  Deum 
verum,  omnis  numerus  apud  saecula  priora  sanctorum  in  hac 
fide  vixit  et  placuit;  et  neque  patriarchis,  neque  prophetis, 
neque  cuiquani  omnium  sanctorum,  nisi  in  redcmptione  Domini 
nostri  Jesu  Christi  salus  et  justifieatio  fuit ;'  and  Serm.  LXIII. 
ii.  (i.  354  (244) ), '  Una  enim  fides  justificat  universorum  tempo- 
rum  sanctos,  et  ad  camdem  spem  fidelium  pertinet  quidquid 
per  mcdiatorem  Dei  et  hominum  Jesum  Christum  vel  nos 
confitemur  factum  vel  patres  nostri  adoravere  faciendum ; ' 
and  Sei-7n.  LXVI.  i.  (i.  365  (255)),  'Rederaptio  Salvatoris,  de- 
struens opus  diaboli  et  runipens  vincula  peccati,  ita  maguae 


APP.  II.]     Additional  Notes  and  Refei'cnces.  575 

pietatis  suae  disposuit  sacramentum,  ut  usque  ad  consumma- 
tioneni  quidem  muiidi  praefinita  generationum  pleuitudo  de- 
curreret,  sed  renovatio  originis  per  justificationeiu  indlscrctae 
fidei  ad  omnia  retro  saecula  pertineret.  Incarnatio  quippe 
Verbi,  et  occisio  et  resurrectio  Christi,  universorum  fidelium 
salus  facta  est,  et  sanguis  unius  justi  hoc  nobis  donavit,  qui 
eum  pro  recouciliatione  mundi  crcdimus  fusum,  quod  con- 
tulit  patribus,  ([ui  similiter  credidere  fundendum.'  (Cap.  ii.), 
'Nihil  ergo,  dilectissimi,  ab  autiquis  significationibus  in  Chris- 
tiana religione  diversum  est,  nee  umquam  a  praecedentibus 
justis,  nisi  in  Domino  .Tesu  Christo  salvatio  sperata  est, 
dispensationibus  quidem  pro  divinae  voluntatis  ratione  varia- 
tis,  sed  in  idipsum  coruscantibus  et  legis  testimouiis  et  pro- 
jjhetiae  oraculis  et  oblationibus  hostiarum  :  quia  sic  congruebat 
illos  poj)ulos  erudiri,  ut  quae  revelata  non  caperent,  ob- 
umbrata  susciperent,  et  major  Evangelii  esset  auctoritas,  cui 
tot  signis  totque  mysteriis  veteris  Testamenti  paginae  de- 
servissent ;  de  quibus  Domiuus  profitebatur,  quod  non  venerat 
le^era  solvere,  sed  adimplere.'  Also  St.  Gregory  the  Great, 
Homil.  in  Ezech.  Lib.  II.  Horn.  iii.  i6  (Migne,  Vol.  ii.  col. 
966(1338)),  'Et  quidem  ab  Abel  sanguine  passio  jam  coepit 
Ecclesiae,  et  una  est  Ecclesia  electorum  praccedentium  atque 
sequentium  .  .  .  Non  divibi  [autiqui  patres]  a  sancta  Ecclesia 
fuerunt,  quia  mente,  opere,  praedicatione,  ista  jam  fidei  sacra- 
raenta  tenuerunt,  istam  sanctae  Ecclesiae  celsitudinem  con- 
spexerunt,  quam  nos  non  adhuc  praestolando  sed  jam  habendo 
conspicimus.  Sicut  enim  nos  in  pi'aeterita  passione  Redemp- 
toris  nostri,  ita  illi  per  fidem  in  eadem  ventura  sunt  salvati ; ' 
and  Ibid.  Horn.  iv.  7  (ii.  977  (1345)),  '  Ipsa  fides  atque  ipsum 
meritum  tenuit  corda  praccedentium  quae  replevit  corda  se- 
quentium sub  novo  testamento  positorum;'  and  Ibid.  Hom. 
V.  2  (ii.  985(1352)),  '  Omues  elccti,  sive  qui  in  Judaea  ei^se 
potuerunt  sive  ([ui  nunc  in  Ecclesia  existunt,  in  Mediatorem 
Dei  et  hominum  crediderunt  et  credunt.'  See  also  Canon 
Bright's  Sermons  of  St.  Leo  on  the  Incarnation^  note  13,  p.  94. 

119.  p.  246.  The  secret  action  of  the  One  Mediator. — St.  Hippol. 
Comment,  in  Genes.  Lagarde's  ed.  §  46,  p.  139,  'O  \s.vpios  w? 
Ytor  ra  81  oiv  iKtivoi  \oi  tCov  nariputv  fTnariixoTOTOi,  who  were  ouly 
ojKtVai]  ytyovaai  Xafjnrpoi  Kf)(oprjyr]Kfv  avTo'ts'  ToiydpToi  Xeyovcriv  on 
fK  Tov  TvXrjpoipaTos  ai/TOv  niivTa  rjpus  (Xd^opa/. 


576  Additional  Notes  and  References,     [app.  ii. 

Sect.  13G.  p.  282.  The  remarkable  prevalence  of  a  very  general  ex- 
pectation.— Head  Newman's  Two  Sermons  on  The  Kingdom  of 
the  Saints — Parochial  Sermons,  Vol.  ii.  Sermons  XX.  XXI. 

144.  p.  307.  Christ's  act  in  the  Upper  Chamber  was  saci'ificial. — 
Comp.  the  Atard^fty  rwi'  uyiav  anocrTokoiv,  bia  'itriTokvTov  {Constitt. 
Apost.  Lib.  VIII.),  given  as  No.  7  of  Lagarde's  Hippolytus, 

§  26,  n(pl  evra^LaSf  p.  88,  1.  9,  Uparos  Tolvvv  'Ap)(iepevs  6  p.opo- 
yf vrjs  XpiCTTos  ,  ov^  cavrco  rrjv  rifxfjv  ApTrdaas,  dXXa  irapa  tov  Uarpos 
KaTa(TTa6eis'  os  yfyop-evos  uvdpcoTros  6t  rjuai  Kai  ttjv  Ttvfvp.aTiKrjv 
Bva'iav  7rpo<j<pep(ov  avra  tw  6ec5  (cai  Uarpl  rrpo  tov  nddovs  fjpLv  Steru- 
^aro  fiovois  tovto  ttouIv,  k.t.X, 

148.  p.  313.  Disembodied  men  are  not  mere  spirits. — St.  Irenaeus, 
Adv.  Ilaer.  II.  Ixiii.  p.  241,  'Plenissime  Dominus  docuit  non 
solum  perseverare  animas,  sed  et  characterem  corporis,  in  quo 
etiam  adaptantur,  custodire  eundem,  et  meminisse  eas  operum 
quae  egerunt  hie  et  a  quibus  cessaverunt,  in  enarratione  quae 
scribitur  De  Divite  et  Lazaro ; '  and  Ibid.  cap.  Ixiv.  p.  242, 
'  Manifestissime  declaratum  est  et  perseverare  animas  .  .  .  et 
habere  hominis  flguram,  ut  etiam  cognoscautur,  et  meminerint 
eorum  quae  sint  hie' 

151.  p.  318.  Christ's  preaching  in  the  Unseen. — St.  Hippol.  Frag- 
ments, On  Daniel,  No.  102  in  Lagarde,  p.  180,  'KaraxOovlav  8e 

[[^acriXevit],  on  Koi  iv  veKpols  eXoyiadr],  evayyeXc^opevos  rais  tu>v  nyicov 

yp^vxnls,  8ia  davdrov  Bdvarov  viKwv ',  and  St.  Irenaeus,  Adv.  Haer. 
IV.  xlv ;  and  St.  Augustine,  Cont.  Julian  VI.  xxii.  (Migne, 
vol.  x.  col.  1553.) 

177.  p.  367.     The  First  Resurrection  is  spiritual.    So  St.  Augustine 

argues,  De  Civ.  Dei,  xx.  vi,  vol.  vii.  665. 

178.  ji.  368.     Christ's  faithful  people  live  and  reign  with  Him  even 

now.  Compare  the  '  Quern  nosse  vivere,  Cui  servire  regnare 
est,'  of  the  Second  Collect  at  Matins ;  and  St.  Aug.  Civ.  Dei, 
XX,  ix  (vol.  vii.  col.  672),  '  Interea  dum  mille  annis  ligatus  est 
diabolus,  sancti  regnant  cum  Christo  etiam  ipsis  mille  annis 
eisdem  sine  dubio,  et  eodem  modo  intelligendis,  id  est,  isto 
jam  tempore  prioris  ejus  adventus  ....  Ecclesia  et  nunc  est 
regnum  Christi,  regnumquae  coelorum.  Regnant  itaque  cum 
illo  etiam  nunc  sancti  ejus,  aliter  quidem,  quam  tunc  regna- 


'  Compare  the  title  'O  'Apx^eptiis  6  uavjKpiTos,  'The  Incomparable  HighPrlcat,' 
applied  to  Christ  a  few  lines  farther  on  in  the  same  passage. 


APR  II.]     Additional  Notes  and  References.  577 

bunt ; '  and,  a  few  lines  afterwards,  of  the  Faithful  Departed, 
'  Quamvis  ergo  cum  suis  corporibus  nondum,  jam  tamen  eorum 
animae  regnant  cum  Illo,  dum  isti  mille  anni  decurrunt.  Unde 
in  hoc  eodem  libro  et  alibi  legitur,  Beali  morlui,  qui  in 
Domino  moriunlur,  amodo  et  jam  dicit  Spiritus,  ut  requi- 
escant  a  lahoribus  suis;  nam  ojiera  eorum  sequuntur  illos. 
Regnat  itaque  cum  Christo  nunc  primum  Ecclesia  in  vivis 
et  mortuis,' 


pp 


INDEX. 


The  figures  refer  to  the  Sections  of  the  Lectures,  and  to  the  pages  of  the  Appendix- 
The  Roman  numerals  refer  to  the  Notes  in  the  Appendix. 


Abraham :  His  Call,  8i  ;  Sacrifice  of 
Isaac,  144. 

Absolution  :  the  power  of,  159. 

Adonai,  93,  96,  loi,  102,  109,  114, 129, 
142  ;  IX.  p.  503. 

Agony,  the,  144,  145. 

Amalek,  the  Judgment  of,  127. 

Ancient  of  Days,  ihe,  107,  175. 

Angel  of  the  Lord,  the  :  Is  the  Eter- 
nal Son,  86,  &c. ;  not  a  created  angel, 
91,  &c. ;   His  Appearances,   86-1 11, 

Angels :  44,  &c.  ;  unscriptural  cultus 
of,  91  ;  their  interest  in  this  world, 
108,  III ;  are  enlightened  by  the  Son 
of  God,  I ;  have  bodies,  11 ;  fell  through 
pride,  IV. 

Annihilationism,  52. 

Antediluvians,  the,  79,  125,  152. 

Antichrist,   192  ;    XV.  p.  545  ;    xvi.  p. 

557-  ^      ^ 

Apostasy,  of  the  Jews,    107,  &c. ;    the 

Final,  173,  192. 
Apostolic  Succession :  Canon  Melvill  on, 

XIV.  p.  542. 
Appearances,  Visible,  of  God,  83,  &c. ; 

see  '  Theophanies.' 
Arianism,  87,  90. 
Atonement,  Day  of,  143  ;  see '  Sacrifice.' 

Acts:  chap.  i.  §§  155,  162;  i.  7,  §  171  ; 
i.  13;  x.p.  507  :  ii.  §  165;  X.  p.  508  ; 
iii.  21,  §  193;  iii.  26,  §  168;  iv.  32, 
§  167,  X.  p.  509;  v.  §  116;  vi.  13, 
§  170  ;  vii.  §  169  ;  vii.  44,  §  120  ;  vii. 
51,  §  119;  ix.  §  169;  xvii.  28,  §  22, 
64. 

Apocalypse,  the  :  date  of,  170  ;  Is  an  ex- 
pansion of  Christ's  Olivet  Prophecy, 
171,  172  ;  Preterist  view  of,  172. 

Alford,  Dean,  30,  38. 

St.  Ambrose :  on  Angels,  II,  iv ;  on  the 
Theophanies,  VII.  p.  472  ;  on  the  Sur- 
render of  the  Kingdom,  xvil.  p.  563. 

St.  Anselm  :  on  angels,  V. 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  56;  on  angels,  v. 


St.  Athanasius,  1,6;  vii.  p.  455. 

St.  Augustine,  83  ;  on  the  Theophanies, 
90,  107  ;  VII.  p.  480  ;  on  angels,  i,  11, 
III ;  on  Gen.  iii.  8  ;  VI ;  on  the  Reno- 
vation of  the  World,  xvil.  p.  567. 


Babylon:  of  the  Apocalypse,  171  ;  xi. 

p.'sog. 
Beatitudes :  the  Eight,  fulfilled  in  the 

Consummated  State,  200. 
Bible  :     still    imperfectly    understood, 

Pref.  p.  xii.  §§  26,  33  ;  critical  study 

of,  133- 

Barry,  Canon,  118,  122. 

St.  Basil:  on  angels,  11 ;  on  the  Theo- 
phanies, VII.  p.  489. 

Bellarinine,  13. 

Bernardinus  a  Piconio :  on  i  Cor.  xv. 
24-28  ;  XVII.  pp.  563,  569. 

Browne,  Bishop  Harold,  73,  76. 

Bruce,  Rev.  A.  B.,  81. 

Bull,  Bishop,  I,  13,  45,  71,  76,  84,  86, 
89  ;  on  angels,  11,  III. 

Burton,  Rev.  Dr.,  97 ;  vii.  p.  451. 


Caiaphas,  Christ's  answer  to,  82,  146, 
170. 

Calvinism,  35. 

Christ.     See  Son,  The  Eteknal. 

Christianity  :  a  forward-looking  Reli- 
gion, 27,  34,  &c. 

Church,  the:  the  worship  of,  72.  120, 
XIV.  p.  540 ;  the  Church  and  the 
world,  1:5;  the  Pentecostal  Church, 
174,  183,  186;  Christ's  Comunssion 
to,  157,  X.  p.  503. 

City:  the  'Great  City'  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, 171  ;  XI.  p.  510. 

Co-inherence,  89;  viii.  p.  502. 

Commission,  Chkist's  to  the  Whole 
Church,  157  ;  x.  p.  505. 

Communion,  the  Holy,  72,  143,  179, 
180. 

Communion,  of  Saints,  175,  178. 


Index. 


579 


Councils:  Antioch,  vii.  p.  455. 
Covenant,  the  Mosaic,  117;  close  of,  143. 
Creation,  12  ;  through  the  Son,  14,  &c.  ; 

neces.«arily  finite  and  imperfect,  63  ; 

needs  the  Incarnation,  63  ;  grandeur 

of,  32.  47. 
Creationism,  57. 
Creeds,  the  Catholic,  3,  5,  6. 

1  Chronicles:  xxi.  15,  §  104. 

2  Chronicles :  li.  xxiv.  20,  xi.  p.  518. 
Colossifnis  :   i.  15.  §§  14,  18,  30;   i.  16, 

§  30  ;  i.  19,  §  62  ;  ii.  19,  §  180. 

1  Corinthians:  ii.  §  78;  ii.  9,  §  193; 
V.  B'  §§  152,  183;  vi.  2,  §  193;  X. 
§§  88,  123  ;  X.  16,  §§  180,  187  ;  xv. 
6,  §  161;  XV.  22,  §  193;  XV.  24- 
28,  §  200.  xvii  ;  XV.  40,  §194;  XV. 
45,  §§  121,  180. 

2  Corinthians  :  ii.  10,  §  183;  iv.  6,  §  89  ; 
xii.  4,  §  148. 

Carpenter,  Canon  Boyd,  132. 

Cheyne  and  Driver,  Bible  ivith  various 

lienderings,  96,  100. 
St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  25  ;  vii.  p. 

440. 
St.  Cj'prian :  on  the  Theophanies,  vii. 

,  P-  454- 

St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  94  ;  on  the  Re- 
novation of  the  World,  XVII.  p.  566. 


Dwight,  Rev.  Dr. :  on  man's  insensibi- 
lity to  the  Incarnation,  137. 


Death:  of  Christ,  147;  of  man,  149; 
progress  after,  150. 

Delegation  :  tlie  principle  of  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry,  166. 

Difficulties  as  to  Faith :  Pref.  p.  xv. 
§  69. 

Discipline :  exercised  by  the  Church,  1 59. 

Disembodied :  the  disembodied  state,  1 47. 

Dispensation,  Ante-ililuvian,  79,  125  ; 
Noachian,  81  ;  Abrahamic,  81,  93, 
125;  Mosaic,  117,  143. 

Dispersion,  Jews  of  the,  136,  171. 

Daniel,  iii.  and  vi.,  §  106;   vii.,  §  107  ; 

XIV.  p.  646;   viii.  15,  §  107;    X.,  xi., 
and  xii.,  §  108. 

Deuteronomy,  xxviii.,  §  172  ;  xi.  p.  513. 

Damascene,  St,  John  :  on  angels,  il. 

Delitzsch,  86 ;  vi. 

Diodati,  John  :  on  the  Theophanies,  vii. 

P-  493- 
Diillinger,  Rev.  Dr.  von,  13,  33,  135  ; 

XV.  p.  553. 

Domer,  Person  of  Christ,  2,  31,  42, 
135. 


Earth:    Renovation  of  the,   149,    193, 

194;   XVII.  p.  565. 
Egj'pt :  the  judgment  of,  82,  126. 
Elders  of  Israel,  1 16. 
Election:    is  not  proscription,  81;  the 

Election  from  apostate  Israel,  1 74. 
Elijah,    104;    future  re-appearance  of, 

XVI.  p.  560. 
End  of  the  world,  the,  80,  193-200 ;  xv, 

XVI,  xvii. 
Eschatology:  Pref.  p.  xii.  §  171 ;    xvii. 

p.  564. 
Eucharist,  the,  72,  143,  179,  180, 
Evidences,      Christian :     Pref.    p.    xv. 

§87. 
Exegesis:  source  of  Christian,  154,  158  ; 

XVI.  p.  539. 
Exodus,  the  82. 

Ephesians:  i.  q,  §  62  ;  i.  10,  §  30,  138  ; 

ii.  4,   §  176;    ii.  14,   §  196;   ii.  19, 

§§   178,  195;    ii.    20,  §  195;    iv.   8, 

§  153;   iv.  10,  §  184;   V.  25,  §  196; 

V.  29-32,  §  196. 
Exodus :    iii,    §   97  ;    xiii,    §    97 ;    xiv, 

§§  97.  98  ;  XV,  §  126  ;  xvii.  8,  §  127  ; 

xxiii,   §  99  ;    xxv,   9  and  40,  §  1 20 ; 

xxvi.  30,  §  J  20  ;  xxxii,  §  99  ;  xxxiii, 

§  99  ;  xxxiii.  9,  vi ;  xxxiii.  20,  §  85  ; 

xxxiv.  5,  §  130. 
Ezcldel:    i.  §  105;    x.  20,   §  105;    xl., 

&c.,  §  105. 

Eusebius,  of  Caesarea,  vil.  p.  458. 
Evans,  Canon  of  Durham,  88. 


Father  —  God  the  Father  —  Never 
visibly  seen,  85  ;  never  said  to  '  be 
sent,'  85,  88. 

Fatherhood  of  God  :  Pref.,  p.  ix.  §§8,  9. 

Forty:  the  'Great  Forty  Days,'  154. 

Freeman,  Archdeacon,  73,  76,  79. 


Gentiles:    the  'Times  of  the  Gentiles,' 

174;  XII.  p.  527. 
Gethsemane :   The  Lord's  Agony,  46, 

144.  I45- 
r^:  New  Test,  use  of,  xi.  p.  514,  note. 
Oixj  and  Mayog,  xvi.  p.  557. 
Gospul :  anterior  to  and  underlying  the 

Law,  118  ;  App.  II.  p.  573. 


P  p  2 


58o 


Index. 


Grace:  Nature  and  Grace,  Pref.  p.  i. 
§  164;  the  Gospel  of  Grace  underlay 
the  Law,  118,  119;  App.  II,  p.  573. 

Galatians:  iii.  8,  §  118;  iv.  26,  §  178. 
Genesis:  ii.  17,  §  73  ;   "•  18,  §  42  ;   iii. 

15.  §  73;  iii-  17.  §  194;  iii- 21,  §  76; 

iv.  I,   §  75  ;    vi.  2,  §  80;    xii,  §  93  ; 

XV,   §  93;    xvi,  §  94;    xviii,   §§  91, 

96  ;  xix,  §  96 ;  xxi,  §  94 ;  xxii,  §  95  ; 

xlviii,  15,  §  95. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  155. 

Gotch  and  Davies,  Rev.  Drs. :  Revised 

English   Bible,    Pref.    p.   xiv.    note, 

§  100. 
St.  Gregory  the  Great:    on  angels,  11, 

IV  ;  on  the  Theophanies,  vii.  p.  487  ; 

on  the  Justification  of  the  0.  T.  saints 

by  Faith,  App.  11.  p.  574. 


Hades,  147. 

Harlot :  the  Harlot  upon  the  Beast,  XI. 
p.  512. 

Heathenism  :  at  the  date  of  the  Incar- 
nation, 135. 

HeU,  152. 

Hahakhuk:  iii.  11,  §  loi. 

Hebrews:   i.  2,  §  14;    i.  3,  §  22  ;    i.  8, 

§  29 ;  ii.  14,  §  147  ;   iii.  i,  §  86 ;   iii. 

2,  §  30  ;  iii.  22,  §  178  ;  iv.  14,  §  141  ; 

vii.  23,  §  184;  viii.  2.  §  185  ;  xiv.  p. 

540  ;  viii.  5,  §  1  20 ;  ix.  9,  §  1 1 7  ;  xi. 

lo,   §    195;   xi.  13,   §    196;    xi.    19, 

§  144;  xii.  22,  §  195. 
Uosea :  xii.  3,  §  95. 

Hardwick,  Archdeacon,  68. 

Hengstenberg,  13,  86,  91. 

St.  Hilary,  of  Poitiers :  on  the  Theoph- 
anies, VII.  p.  466 ;  his  De  Trinitate, 
App.  II.  p.  571. 

St.  Hippolytus :  on  the  Theophanies, 
VII.  p.  452  ;  on  Antichrist,  xv.  p.  551  ; 
App.  II.  p.  572  ;  on  Christ  in  the  an- 
cient Church,  App.  Ii.  p.  573. 

Hooker,  45,  46,  52,  59  ;  iv. 

Horsley,  Bishop:   on  i  St.  Peter  iii.  18, 

§  152- 
Huxtable,  Prebendary,  95. 


tion,  24,  ii2,&c.,  137,  164;  the 'sum- 
ming up '  of  all  things,  30,  59,  62  ; 
not  contingent  on  sin,  58,  &c. ;  vii.  p. 
500  ;  secures  the  permanence  of  the 
material  creation,  61  ;  the  long  pre- 
paration for,  68 ;  adoration  of  God 
for,  74;  not  an  isolated  fact,  87; 
men's  insensibility  to  the  grandeur 

of,  137- 

Intellect :  to  be  used  on  religious  sub- 
jects, 2  :  relation  of  to  moral  charac- 
ter, 36,  &c. 

Intermediate  :  the  Intermediate  State, 
147. 

Isaac  :  the  Sacrifice  of,  144. 

Israel :  grandeur  of  the  calling  of,  132; 
consequences  of  unfaithfulness  of,  132. 

Isaiah:  vi,  §§  107,  129;  ix.  6,  §§  60, 
86,  140;  liii,  §  147  ;  Ixiii.  3,  §  144; 
Ixiii.  7,  §§99,  115  ;  Ixiv.  4,  §  193  ; 
Ixv.  2,  §  115. 

St.  Irenseus,  89  ;  on  the  Theophanies, 
VII.  p.  435  ;  disembodied  men  are  not 
mere  spirits,  App.  11.  p.  576. 


Ideal :  the  Ideal  of  Redemption,  1 76, 
&c. ;  XIII.  p.  531;  Bible  'Ideals,' 
XIII.  p.  531. 

Incarnation  :  the  Incarnation  tlie 
completed   development    of    Media- 


Jerusalem:  its  first  downfall,  182  ;  final 
fall  of,  132,  171  ;  the  Babylon  of  the 
Apocalypse,  171;  xi.  p.  509;  the 
'  New  Jerusalem,'  195. 

Jews  :  future  Restoration  of,  132  ;  xvi. 
P-  553 ;  their  view  of  the  Theopha- 
nies, VII.  p.  491 ;  Prophecies  relating 
to,  XVI.  p.  554. 

Joseph  :  a  type  of  Christ,  132. 

Judaism,  2  7 ;  the  Judaism  of  our  Lord's 
time,  XI.  p.  512. 

Judgment :  the  judgment  of  the  Ante- 
diluvian world,  79  ;  of  Sodom,  82,  96  ; 
of  Egypt,  127  ;  of  Amalek,  127  ;  of 
the  Canaanites,  128  ;  of  Israel,  130; 
of  Judah,  131  ;  of  Nineveh,  131  ;  of 
Babylon,  131;  of  the  later  Jerusalem, 
132,  167,  168,  170,  &c.  ;  of  Christian 
Churches,  173,  189,  190;  the  Gene- 
ral Judgment,  197. 

Judicial  character  of  Christ,  82,  190. 

St.  James :  his  general  Epistle,  171. 
Job  :     xxxiii.    23,    §    104  ;    xxxviii.    7, 

§  194- 
St.  Johii's  Gospel:  i.  3,  §§  i,  14;  i.  4, 
§  22  ;  i.  9,  §§  36,  68,  77,  88  ;  i.  10, 
§§  15,  21,  88:  i.  14.  §  136;  i.  18, 
§§  70,  85  ;  V.  §§  30,  82,  88  :  v.  24, 
&c.,  §  177;  vi.  39,  §§  180,  193;  viii. 
56,  §§  88,  196  ;  X.  iS,  §  146  ;  xii.  23, 


Index. 


581 


§  172  ;  xii.  28,  §  85;  XII.  p.  526  ;  xii. 

41,  §  129;  xiii.  §  143  ;  xiv.31,  §  143  ; 

xvii,  §§  142,  144,  198  ;  xviii.  6,  §  I46  ; 

XX.  19,  §§  142,  157,  1S3;    XX.  21,  X. 

p.  506  ;  xxi,  §  160. 
Joshua:  i.  5,  §  loi  ;  v.  vi,  §  loi. 
St.  Jude :  §  50  ;  ver.  9,  §  196.    ^ 
Judgrs  :  ii,  §  102  ;    iv.  v,  §  102;  v.  23, 

§  108  ;  vi.  II,  §  102  ;  xiv,  §  103. 


Kaiv6i  :  use  of,  xi.  p.  510,  note. 
Karixov  '■  ^i  /carexoi'  of  2  Thess.  ii,  Xiv. 

p.  547- 
Keys,  power  of  the,  159,  165,  183,  187. 
Kingdom  of  God,   124,  &c.,  135,  167, 

188. 
Kingly  function  of  Christ,  124,    135, 

155,167,  188,  189;  XVII.  p.  563. 
Kings  of  the  earth,  xi.  p.  513. 

Kings :  i.  xix,  §  104  ;  11.  i.  §  104. 

Keble,  Rev.  John,  68,  126,  139,  146,  il. 
Keil,  VI. 


Lamb  :  the  Lamb  as  it  had  heen  slain, 

175- 
Law  :  the  law  of  Moses,  117,  143. 
Lawless :  the  lawless  one,  192  ;  xv.  p. 

548- 
Lawlessness,  of  the  last  times,  xv.  p. 

548. 
Life  Eternal,  177. 
Logos  ;  AoyosdoapKOi,  Pref.  p.  i.  ;   A  pp. 

II.  572. 
Loosing  of  Satan,  xv.  p.  549. 
Lost  spirits,  angelic  and  human,  39,  51, 

&c.,  199. 

Leviticus:  xxvi.  §  172;  xi.  p.  513. 

St.  Luke's  Gospel:  ix.  51,  §  144;  x.  18, 
§  175,  XII.  p.  525;  X.  22,  §  70;  .X. 
24,  §  196;  xi.  14-26,  XII.  pp.  525, 
530;  xii.  39,  §  194;  xii.  47,  §  197: 
xiii.  28,  §§  151,  196;  xiii.  34,  §  S8  ; 
xiv.  16,  §  199;  xvii,  §  80;  xix.  11- 
27,  §  200;  XX.  36,  §  194;  xxi.  24, 
§§  34,  82  ;  xxi.  25,  §  171 ;  xxi.  32, 
§  171  ;  xxi.  33,  §  194;  xxii.43,  §  46; 
xxiv.  27,  45,  Pref.  p.  xv,  §§  87,  1 14, 
142,  154,  158  ;  xxiv.  33,  §  X.  p.  506  ; 
xxiv.  50,  §  162. 


Martyrs  :  the  Martyrs  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse, XI.  p.  517- 

Mediation  :  natural  and  spiritual,  Pref. 
p.  i.  164. 

M€7i(rTai'€s :  New  Testament  use  of,  xi. 
p.  515  note. 

St.  Michael,  the  Archangel,  97,  108, 
109,  VII.  p.  427. 

Millennium:  170,  171,  175,  178,  182, 
XII.  p.  524. 

Malachi:  no;  iii.  i,  viil.  p.  503;  iv. 

XVI.  p.  558. 

St.  Mark  :  x.  32,  §  144  ;  x.  39,  §  143  ; 

xiii.  3,  §  171  ;   xiii.  30,  §  171 ;  xiii. 

31,  §  194;    xiv.  28,  §  161  ;    xvi.  19, 

§  162. 
St.  Matthew  :  v.  3,  &c.,  §  200  ;  viii.  11, 

§  196;    X.  8,  §  151;  xi.  ir,  §  196; 

xi.  27,  §  70;    xii.  43-45,  §  172,  175, 

XII.  p.  525  ;  xiii.  17,  §  196;  .xiii.  43, 

§  180;    xviii.  6-10,   §  189;    xix.   30, 

§  193 ;  XX,  20,  §  143  ;  xxi.  33,  §  82, 

XI.  p.  516 ;  xxii.  I,  §  82,  XI.  p.  516  ; 

xxiii.  37,  §§  82,  88  ;  x.xiv.  34,  §  171 ; 

xxiv.  35,  §  194;     xxiv.  43,    §   194; 

xxiv.  45,  §  171  ;    XXV.  15-30,  §  200  ; 

XXV.    19,   §  171;   XXV.  31,  §  82,  193; 

xxvi.    26,    §  143;    xxvi.   32,    §  161; 

xxvii.  52,  §  196  ;    xxviii.   16,  §  161  ; 

xxviii.  18,  §  154;  xxviii.  19,  §  154. 
Micah,  vii.  18,  §  131. 

Macaire,  Bishop :  On  angels,  II.  iv. 

M<^Caul,  Dr.  :  Kimchi  on  Zechariah, 
VII.  p.  491. 

Macdonald,  Rev.  Donald  :  On  the  Penta- 
teuch, 71,  79. 

Maples,  Kev.  Chauncy,  135. 

Martensen  :  Christian  Dogmatics,  1 3, 
67,  126: 

Maurice,  Rev.  F.  D.,  6. 

Mede  :  On  the  Renovation  of  the  World, 

XVII.  p.  566. 

St.  Melito :    On   the  Theophanies,   VII. 

P-  4.^3- 
Melvill,  Rev.  Canon :  On  Ileh.  viii.  2, 

XIV.  p.  540. 
Mill,  Dr.,  67,  85,  86,  97,  loi. 
Milman,  Dean  :    History  of  the  Jews, 

XI.  p.  5i.=;- 
Moberly,  Bishop  of  Sarum,  118,  156. 
Moulton,  Rev.  Dr.,  88. 


Magog,  Gofj  and  Mngog:  xvi.  557. 
Man:  the  Microcosm,  55,  &c.  ;  App.  II. 
P-57I- 


Nature  and  Grace:  Pref.  p.  i.  164. 
Nicene  Creed  :  importance  of  the,  5. 

Numbers :  iii.  5,  §  116;   iii.  40,  §  116 


58: 


Index. 


viii.  4,  §  120;  viii.  5,  §  n6  ;  xii.  6, 
VI  ;  xviii.6,  §  116;  xxii.-xxiv,  §  100; 
xxii.  8,  VI.  note. 

Newman,  Cardinal,    13,    86,   89,    141 
XIII.  p.  536. 


Old  Testament:    insufficiently  studied, 

Pref.  p.  xiii.  §  41. 
Only-ness,  of  God,  8. 

Ode,  Jacobus :  De  Anfjelis,  On  the  Theo- 

phanies,  vii.  p.  494. 
Oosterzee,  Van ;   Christian  Dogmatics, 

12,  14,  67,  71,  130. 
Origen :  On  the  Tlieophanies,  vii.  p.  453. 
Owen,  Rev. Robert:  Dogmatic  Tlieology, 

III. 


Pantheism,  64,  &c.,  67. 

Parables:  the  Talents,  200;  the  Pounds, 
200. 

Paradise,  147,  148,  151,  175. 

Passover,  the,  122,  143. 

Peace :  the  fruit  of  the  Incarnation, 
138. 

Pentecost,  165. 

Xlepixwprjais,  89,  VIII.  p.  502. 

Persecution :  of  the  Jewish  Christians, 
170.  195. 

Predestination  :  St.  Paul's  language  on, 
XIII.  p.  536. 

Priesthood  :  connected  with  primogeni- 
ture, 42,  116,  141;  the  Christian 
priesthood,  143,  166,  183,  184,  185; 
Melvill  on,  xiv.  p.  542. 

Probation:  of  angels,  48,  71  ;  no  pro- 
bation after  death,  149. 

Prophecy,  Hebrew,  1 15,  129,  XVI.  p. 
653- 

Purpose :  God's  all-inclusive  Purpose 
the  Manifestation  of  Himself,  63 ; 
the  purpose  of  God  may  be  studied, 
134- 

t>t.  Peter  s  Epistles:  I.  i.  11,  §  115;  i. 

i.   12,  §  21  ;  I.  i.  20,  §  118;  1.  ii.  4, 

§  196;  I.  ii.  5,  9,  §  179;  I.  iii.  18, 

§  147,  152  ;  I.  iii.  19,  §  196,  note  ;  i. 

iii.  20,  §  80;  II.  iii.  §  194. 
PMlippians :  i.  21,  §  196  ;  ii.  20,  §  178  ; 

iii.  8,  §  196,  note;  iii.  12,  14,  §  181  ; 

iii.  20,  §  195  ;   iii.  21,  §  180;    iv.  21, 

§  194. 
Proverbs:  viii.  22-31,  §  21. 
Psalms:  ii.   §§  29,  112,  114,  193;  viii. 

§§  55,  154,  200;  ix.  x.xi.  XVI.  p.  546; 

ix.  18,  §  195;  xi.  §  195;  xii.  §  195 


xvii.  15,  VI.;  xxiv.  §  163;  xxxvii. 
§  200  ;  Ii.  §  119  ;  xciii.  2,  §  27  ;  xcix. 
1,  §  27;  ex.  §  29,  114. 

Pearson,  Bishop  :  On  the  Creed,  29,  152 
Plumptre,  Dean  of  Wells  :  On  Acts  xvii. 

64. 
Prudentius :  On  the  Theophanies,  vii. 

p.  4S4. 
Pusey,  Dr.,  87,  94,  95,   101,   102,  104, 

109  ;    on  Justin  Martyr,  vii.  p.  426; 

on  the  return  of  Elijah,  xvi.  p.  560. 


Reign  :  of  Christ  on  earth,  xvii.  p.  565  ; 

of  the  Saints  with  Christ,  176,  181, 

182,  193,  App.  II,  p.  576. 
Renovation  of  the   World :    194,  XVII. 

p.  566;  App.  II.  p.  577. 
Resurrection:  of  the  Saints,  193,  197  ; 

the   'First   Resurrection,'    177,   xii. 

p.  527  ;    the   General    Resurrection, 

193.  197- 
Retribution :  examples  of  Divine,  80,  &c., 

96,  127,  12S,  130-132. 
Revelation :  The  Book  of  the.  Revelation  ; 

see  'Apocalypse.' 
Royalty  of  Christ,  27,   124,   135,  175, 

176,  XVII.  p.  565. 

Revelation:  analysis  of,  xi.  p.  519;   i. 

§  107;    ii.  5,  §  191  ;  iii.   12,  §  178; 

iii.  21,  §  193;   iv.-xix.  §  172  ;   iv.  I, 

§  196  ;  v.  §  172  ;  V.  6,  §  163;   v.  10, 

§  176;  vi.  §  132;  vi.  10,  §  195;  xii. 

§  170;    xiii.  2,  4,   §  175;    xviii.  XI. 

p.  516;  xix.  7,  §  171 ;  xix.  10,  §  115; 

XX.  §  171,  175  ;   XX.  4,  §  176;  XX.  7, 

§  192;    xxi.    §§  178,   194,  195,   196, 

198  ;   xxi.  8,  §  199  ;    xxi.  24,  §  199; 

xxii.  II,  15,  §  199. 
Romans:  ii.  14,  §  197  ;  iii.  §§  1 17,  139  ; 

viii.  19,   §  194,  XIII.  p.  536  ;  xi.  xii. 

p.  527,  XVI.  p.  556 ;  xi.  25-32,  §§  34, 

82,  196. 


Sacraments,  59,  165,  179,  183,  187. 

Sacrifice  :  is  the  essence  of  worship,  41 ; 
animal  sacrifice,  76  ;  the  Eucharistic 
Sacrifice,  72,  143,  179;  meaning  of 
the  partaking  of  sacrifices,  121; 
sacrifice  of  the  will,  144  ;  inner  es- 
sence of  sacrifice,  1 44. 

Salvation  :  the  '  state  of  salvation,'  177, 
&c. 

Sanhedrim,  XI.  p.  515. 

Sapientia :  the  antiphon,  0  Sapientia, 
142. 

Science  :  not  antagonistic  to  theology, 
23  ;  is  the  study  of  Nature,  54. 


Index. 


583 


Septuagint,  Pref.  p.  xiii.  100,  102. 

Sheol,  148. 

Sin:  necessitates  expiation,  41 ;  entered 
through  free-will,  48  ;  essence  of,  is 
pride,  49  ;  sin  of  the  Angels,  50,  &c. 

Sin-offering,  121. 

Sodom,  the  Judgment  of,  82,  96. 

Son:  the  Eternal  Son,  8,  9,  16  ;  is 
the  Mediator  as  the  Son,  10,  &c. ; 
upholds  the  universe,  22,  28;  royal 
character  of,  29  ;  is  heir  of  all  thing.s, 
30,  31  ;  the  Light  of  the  World,  36  ; 
His  Priesthood,  40,  &c. ;  the  '  Educa- 
tor' of  mankind,  25,  71,  78,  137, 
150  ;  the  Mediator  from  the  first,  77  ; 
judicial  ch.iracter  of,  82  ;  was  always 
the  medium  of  Divine  Communica- 
tion, 85  ;  is  the  Angel  of  the  LoED, 
86-111;  pre-incarnate  appearances 
of,  83,  &c. ;  His  prophecy  on  Olivet, 
80,  170,  171  ;  is  invisible  in  His  Di- 
vine Essence,  89 ;  is  the  Image  of 
God,  89 ;  was  Mediator  under  the 
Law,  112,  I  20 ;  His  Kingly  Function, 
124,  129;  was  'tlie  God  of  Lsrael,' 
129  ;  His  Incarnation,  137  ;  value  of 
His  earthly  life,  140;  His  Baptism, 
140;  His  work  as  Man,  140,  &c.  ; 
Temptation,  141  ;  teaching,  as  Pro- 
phet, 142;  Priestly  Function,  143; 
Last  Supper,  143,  App.  11.  p.  576; 
His  Agony,  144 ;  Transfiguration, 
144;  Death,  147;  action  in  the  Un- 
seen State,  147,  &c.,  195  ;  Resurrec- 
tion, 154  ;  commission  to  the  Church, 
157,  &c. ;  commission  to  St.  Peter, 
160;  commission  to  baptize,  161; 
Final  Charge,  162  ;  Ascension,  163; 
His  answer  on  oath  to  Caia|ihas,  170  ; 
His  Mediation  after  His  Ascension, 
1S4,  &c. ;  His  future  post-Millennial 
reign  on  earth,  195,  200,  xvii.  p.  565. 

Spirit— The  Holy  Spirit — His  help 
needed  in  theological  study,  i,  7,  78; 
is  the  life  of  all  that  lives,  28,  70  ; 
inbreathed  by  Christ,  158;  gift  of, 
at  Pentecost,  165,  167,  187;  given, 
at  Easter-night  and  on  Day  of  Pente- 
cost, to  the  whole  Church,  166,  X, 
p.  505  ;  bears  witness  witliin  Chris- 
tians, 186. 

Spirit  of  man,  38,  &c.,  56,  57  ;  disem- 
bodied, 148;  spirits  m  pri/ion,  152. 

St.  Steplien's  martyrdom,  160,  170. 

Subordination  of  the  SON,  11. 

Succession,  Apt>8tolic :  Canon  Melvill 
on,  XIV.  p.  542. 

Supper,  the  Last,  I43. 


Samuel,  11.  xxiv.  16,  §  104. 

Sandius,  Christopher,  84. 

Schopenhauer,  67. 

Shedd :  Uistory  of  Christian  Doctrine, 
2. 

Smith :  Dean  Payne  Smith  of  Canter- 
bury, on  the  Theophanies,  vil.  p.  496. 

Steward's  Mediatorial  Sovereignty,  vii. 
p.  497. 


Tabernacle  and  Temple :  symbolism  of 

the,  XIII.  p.  534. 
Targunis,  73,  86. 

Theocracy  of  Israel,  126,  129,  136. 
Theology   not   antagonistic  to  science, 

Theophanies,  83,  &c. ;  cessation  of,  92  ; 
examined  in  detail,  93-11 1;  of  the 
ascended  Christ,  168,  169,  Appen- 
dix, Note  VII. 

Time:  (he  fulness  of  the  time,  136. 

Traducianism,  57. 

Transfiguration,  the,  144. 

Tne  of  life,  the,  59. 

Tribulation,   t/ie   great,    169,    170,   xil. 

P-  525- 
Trinity— The    Holy    Trinity— Old 

Testament  intimations  of,  21. 
Trinity  of  evil,  xi.  p.  523  ;  xvii.  p.  534. 

TlicHsalonians :  I.  iii.  13,  §  193;  i.  iv. 
16,  §  193;  I.  V.  23,  §  149;  II.  ii, 
§§  172,  192,  XV.  p.  545,  XVI.  p.  557. 

Timothy:  i.  ii.  5,  §  24;  i.  vi.  16,  §§  70, 
85  ;  I  ii.  20,  §  X98. 

Titus :  ii.  13,  §  194 ;  iii.  5,  Xli.  p.  628. 

Tertullian,  84 ;    on   angels,    V ;    on  the 

Theophanies,    VII.    p.  444;     on    the 

Millennium,  xvii.  p.  567. 
St.  Theophilus :    on   the   Theophanies, 

VII.  p.  435. 
Thomson,  Archbishop  of  York,  144. 
Trench,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  68,  VII, 

p.  499 ;  XV.  p.  549. 


L^nitarianism,  Pref.  p.  ix.  8. 

Unity,  of  Gon,  8. 

Unity  among  Christians :  unhappy  re- 
sults of  breach  of,  Pref.  p.  ix.  191. 

Universe,  the,  grandeur  of,  32,  47. 

Universalism,  52,  199. 

Unseen  State,  the,  147,  148,  178  ; 
Christ's  Presence  in,  153.  178. 

Unseen  Universe,  the,  61. 


584 


Index. 


Version,  Revised  Westminster  Version 
of  1881,  43,  133. 

Valesius,  on  EuseLius'  Ilht.  Eccl.,  loi. 


War :    not  designed  for  God's  people, 

129. 
Wicked  One,  the,  of  2  Thess.  ii.,  192, 

XV.  p.  545. 
World-power,  the:  Babel,  125;   Egypt, 

126;    Imperial   Rome,  xi.   pp.  512, 

522  ;  of  the   future  Antichrist,  192, 

XV.  XVI. 


Worship:  must  be  through  the  One 
Mediator,  41,  &c.,  76;  offered  by 
angels,  45 ;  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
120,  179,  XIII.  p.  538. 

Wace:  Bampton  Lectures,  192. 
Westcott,  Rev.  Dr.,  36,  82. 
Wordsworth,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  88. 
Wordsworth,    Canon    John,    Hampton 
Lectures,  59. 


ZcchariaJt,  109. 


THE  END. 


V^ 


./-;//;   <_ 

1    101 


2  01131    1646 


I    .A J;  V  *•; 

-i.V  1  •  **        ',  ■    ^    .' 


'U' 


-MWWLi  yu. 


V 


